LOW FRUIT PRICES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 45, 17 November 1936, Page 11

LOW FRUIT PRICES

Last Season’s Return Worst on Record ASSISTANCE FOR GROWERS By Telegraph—Press Association. Nelson, November IG. The fact that the average return per case of export fruit sent to the United Kingdom during tile past season was as low as 8/4 J New Zealand currency (it is estimated that 10/- is required for export to be a payable business), said the secretary of the New Zealand Fruit Export Control Board, Mr. W. Benzies, when explaining the method of adjustment of the guarantee at a meeting of fruit-growers held- at Mapua. However, by an arrangement regarding the guarantee fund and the distribution of Government contributions to that fund as a grant instead of a loan each grower is to receive not less than 9/- a case. Mr. Benzies said it would be recalled that the board had a three-year arrangement with the previous Government for the granting of loans to growers on fruit not making 9/-. However, the board felt that that would in no way meet the position this year, and had asked the Government, through the Hon. W. Nash, Minister of Finance, to help the industry if the season resulted as it was feared it would. Mr. Nash had sailed for England before the final figures had been received, but from a cable from London stating the total amount realised the board knew the average return would be 8/4 J New Zealand currency (6/10 sterling), a position which has never been experienced before.

Mr. Nash was told of the position, but he said the Government could not go further than its previous commitments for the 1936 season. However, the Government would not be against the board distributing money collected for the guarantee fund by a levy on growers. The £25,000 set aside could also be paid out as a grant and not as a loan to growers.

The board had decided that all growers, whether claimants on the guarantee or not, were to be refunded the amounts they had paid in the guarantee levy during the last three years—lid. per case in 1934, 3Jd. in 1935 and 2|d. in 1936, making 7|d. in all. That money would now go back to the grower. There were claims on theguarantee of £43,000. There was £25,000 of Government contributions in the fund, and it would be distributed as a grant and not as a loan. The board had two objectives in its present arrangements, to make sure that each grower gets back the amount he has paid into the fund and to ensure that no exporter (with the market return, return of fuud and Government grant) will get less than 9/- per case for the season’s export. The arrangement for the coming season had also been discussed and the best terms the Government was likely to give were a guarantee of 10/- a case to each individual exporter provided the industry contributed £lO,OOO toward a guaranteed liability. A light crop was anticipated in the coming season, and the collection of £lO,OOO would mean a levy of 2d. or 3d. per case, and so, under the suggested terms, the guarantee would not be 10/-, but would be 9/9. Cabinet had realised that position and was considering that feature of it at present. Cabinet also knew that the cost of cases would be up, also labour costs, but the board felt sure that whatever the outcome the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance will want the industry to pay higher wages and to see that, the industry will be in a position to pay it. How it is to be done is not yet known. When speaking on the matter of the guarantee later in the meeting, the chairman, Mr. H. E. Stephens, said the board had tried to get the Minister of Finance to carry out a promise made at the Dominion conference when he said that if the growers required help they would get it. That statement had created in the minds of growers a feeling that they would get some consideration beyond the guarantee fund if it was needed. In his mind “something had slipped” since then and the board could not get the Government to go beyond the arrangement as outlined by Mr. Benzies. The Minister of Finance was agreeable for the Government to go further for the 1937 season, but could not do more for the past season. The best possible terms the board could get wa s for the funds to be paid as a grant and not as a loan as previously arranged, and he did not think that that could be altered by any further representations.

Mr. J. Dicker pointed out that as a result of the negotiations growers would receive £25.000 as a gift and not as a loan, and that was an important point.