"SIMPLY CHAOTIC"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 123, 26 May 1945, Page 9

"SIMPLY CHAOTIC"

VEGETABLE MARKETING

INVESTIGATION REQUIRED

O.C. PALMERSTON N., This Day. "The present conditions in vegetable marketing in New Zealand are simply chaotic. No worse methods could be found. We growers must get together and co-operate to achieve some better scheme," declared Mr. A. H. Waterson, growers' member of the Vegetable Marketing Council for the Manawatu district, at a meeting of the Manawatu Produce Growers' Association, called to consider the matter of a national survey" of vegetable production. Mr. Waterson said he was sure that if an improved form of marketing cpuld be developed, the Government would back them up. There were both European and Chinese growers at the meeting, and Mr. J. W. Gibbons, Government member of the Vegetable Marketing Council and produce officer of the Internal Marketing Division, spoke of the need for a national survey. Mr Waterson pointed out that fresh [vegetables could be supplied to the American troops on Iwo Jima 48 hours after being landed, after they had been carried 6000 miles, yet in New Zealand the growers were unable to guarantee the freshness of vegetables sent to Wellington. . Mr. Gibbons said that the vegetable industry was of growing importance to the welfare of the Dominion, especially in view of the difficult food problem of the world, which would be felt intensely in this country and would |be aggravated by the greater concentration of troops in the Pacific. PreIcise information regarding vegetable I production was urgently required. . It was decided to set up an advisory committee to assist in the survey jin the Manawatu.