VEGETABLE PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 102, 27 October 1938, Page 8

VEGETABLE PRICES

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —We have read the opinions of the consumer and the commercial grower, now let me give you the views of a private grower. Why anyone pays 3d for four small carrots when it is possible to grow them 18in long andlilb in weight, all for the price of one packet of seed at 4£d, passes my comprehension. I have been growing fine vegetables for four years on land which was covered with gorse and broom and which had to be broken up with a pickaxe, as all surface soil had long since gone. Deep digging and intelligent manuring are of course essential, but given j these two aids anyone can grow good] vegetables. At least I can, in my spare time, and I am not so young as I wasl-l am. etc.. pETULENGRO . | (To the Editor.) Sir,—The Pukekohe grower has opened up a subject that is on the lips of every housewife in bringing the price charged by retailers for vegetables into the limelight. The prices that have been ruling for all classes of vegetables certainly need investigation, and a system of orderly marketing introduced. It quite understand that perishable goods are very hard to con-

trol, but surely there should be some relation of selling price to buying price. Recently, housewives have been charged 10d and 2s. for cabbages and cauliflowers. It would be most interesting to know the grower return compared with the retailer. With all goods sold under the law of supply, and demand, the price charged to the consumer should be according to the price paid to the producer, allowing reasonable profit to all. I do not suggest that the State should control this marketing, but I do consider that the retailers should' put their house in order. —I am, etc., CONSUMER.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —In Wednesday's "Post," Mr. A. Bennett, secretary of the Wellington Provincial Retail Fruit Traders' Association, replied to the allegations of "Commercial Grower," a previous correspondent, regarding excessive retail prices of vegetables. "Commercial Grower" said that it is the practice of growers to put up carrots, parsnips, turnips, and beetroot into bundles of from 12 to 15, then to pack these bundles into cases—3o to 40 bundles in a case. These cases, he said, are sold at from 7s to, 10s each at the market, but the retailer sells the contents for about 30s. Mr. Bennett says these statements are ridiculous. Apart from contradicting the respective prices, wholesale and retail, he asserts that the abovementioned vegetables are not packed in cases, and he points, for confirmation, to the "Post's" marketing reports. Well, Sir, on page 21 of Wednesday's "Post" (the same issue in which Mr. Bennett writes), we find the following, under "Fruit and Vegetables": "Carrots, 3s to 7s a case; parsnips, 8s to 16s 6d case; beetroot, Is to 5s 6d a case." Even assuming, that the carrots are packed loose m the cases, there would not be fewer than from 250 to 300 carrots, in a case, and if the retailer pays 7s for them, he is buying them at the rate of three a penny, perhaps four, and he sells them at one penny each—a profit^ of about 300 per cent., which is just what I said in my first letter that began this correspondence. There is a definite conflict between "Commercial Grower" and Mr. Bennett. They cannot both be right, and meanwhile the unfortunate consumer has to pay through the. nose or go without. The matter is serious and calls for immediate inquiry.—l am, etc EATING MONEY.