CONTROL OF ONION EXPORT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 93, 13 January 1939, Page 10

CONTROL OF ONION EXPORT

Action By Government

BUSINESS NOT TO BE HAMPERED

t inier a Customs Export Prohibition Order gazetted last night, the exportation of any onions, save with I he consent of iho Minister of Customs, is prohibited.

The Minister of Agriculture. Mr. Lee Martin, in a statement, said that in normal years the Victorian onion crop was sufficient for all Australian requirements and permitted of an exportable surplus. This year, owing to drought conditions, the Victorian yield was so reduced that rhe crop would be barely sufficient for Victoria s own needs, and tlie Sydney and Brisbane markets would have to rely to a verj; large extent upon importations. >

"New Zealand merchants have ‘already booked orders for Sydney at very til tractive prices, and j( is not intended to hamper legitimate business in tiiis direction,” the Minister said. "The onion marketing advisory committee, however, considers it eminently desirable that only high-grade and suitablypacked produce should be shipped, as it is hoped in this way to facilitate the development of a trade to the full extent of our normal annual surplus in the early part of the season. “Action has therefore been taken to secure control of export, and merchants should apply to the Department of Agriculture at the port of shipment in the first instance for permits. It is not necessary to procure a permit in respect of ships’ stores, or shipments to the Pacific Islands.”