ACCUMULATION OF MAIZE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 21, 20 October 1941, Page 9

ACCUMULATION OF MAIZE

The Bay of Plenty maize crop of 80,000 bags is steadily deteriorating in the growers' cribs, according to statements made at a special meeting of the Eastern Bay of Plenty Primary Production Council, states a Whakatane correspondent. The Government’s action in appealing for increased production and then allowing the importation of South African maize and Australian wheat to compete with the local corn was strongly criticized. The chairman, Mr. R. Ruddick, Taneatua, said the farmers, in good faith, had doubled production in order to overcome the necessity for importing maize. Now the crop was harvested the prospect of disposing of it appeared to be getting more and more remote. The crop had increased from 35,330 bags last year to 92,840 bags this year in the Bay of Plenty. In spite of the Government’s promise of a guaranteed price, only 8500 bags had been sold from the Bay of Plenty as yet, while the position was further aggravated by production in the Gisborne district, which had risen from 45,000 bags to 60,000 bags. Mr. H. C. McCready contended that the main cause of the slump in sales was the amount of South African maize imported by the very Government which had appealed for increased local supplies.