ONION FAMINE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 132, 1 December 1939, Page 9

ONION FAMINE

RETAILING. AT 9D LB -/

WHO IS fO BLAME?

GOVERNMENT CHARGED

Why is WelUngton short of onions?.' There is hardly an onion to be bought in the city, and the few'that are available are being retailed at 8d and 9d a lb. '■-~'

The shortage is not confined to Wellington; it is Dominion-wide,, and the" principal reason is dela^ in the arrival , of shipments from Canada and Cali-. ;: jornia, which are New Zealand's chief ■'■' suppliers at this time of the year. The ■ , shortage of.• sterling funds is also a., . factor.

Retail fruiterers in Wellington' de-_ clare there is no legitimate reason for1: the acute shortage, nor for the famine prices that are now being charged; they claim that the New Zealand Government has had the opportunity for the past month to secure onions from - Melbourne 'at £7 10s a ton f.o.b. Mcl- vbourne, a figure which would allow them to be landed here at about £11 a ton and sold by retailers over the counter at 2d to 3d a lb.

Onions from Canada usually cost about £15 a ton. which allows a retail price of about 4d alb here. Today in Wellington a few 'bags of onions— bought, it is understood, recently at 22s a bag—were sold at £2 5s a bag, and the purchasers apparently considered themselves fortunate to get them at

One merchant blamed the Government for the present, situation. "After the Government- had its fingers burntover its deal in Japanese onions some time ago," he said, "it" went to the other extreme and did hot order enough onions from our regular suppliers in Canada. That delay and tha time-lag caused by the war have resulted in one lo.t of Canadian onions being due in New Zealand some time next month instead of about November 5. They v^U reach here after two and a half; months on the water, so we can imagine the condition in which they; will arrive."

Merchants explain that the acut« shortage is not a sudden development, but has been pending for some timet "We have been short of onions all along," one~ man said. "Last year tha merchants lost hundreds of pounds in onions alone by selling them at prices far below cost. Now the Government has taken over the lot and has caused an extreme shortage by under-buying and the public:is made to shoulder the burden of famine prices. The merchants, of course, bhave now no oppox> tunity of recovering their losses from last year."