JAPANESE ONIONS

Evening Star, Issue 23349, 19 August 1939, Page 16

JAPANESE ONIONS

THE MARKETING BOARD'S PROBLEM MERCHANTS CHARY AT PRICE QUOTED What is wrong with our system of marketing onions S' If none was exported lucre nuglit be sufficient grown wifhin tho Dominion to meet our needs, but unfortunately, a considerable quantity is exported every year in tho flush of the season. However, tins year the position has boon aggravated by supplies leaving tho country when tho local demand has not been satisfied. The Government Marketing Board has had to resort to importation and at the same time exports to Australia have been taking place—surely an anomalous position. Not only have people of this Dominion been using Egyptian onions, but tho board has also brought in considerable supplies of Japanese onions, as witness the protest among Chinese fruiterers in the north who refused to retail them.

It is impossible to ascertain at this stage what tho Marketing Board paid for these onions, but from inquiries made, unless tho price at which they are offered to merchants cases, the board is going to show a loss. Recently these onions were offered to merchants at £22 a ton, but tho latest quote made is for £lO, a drop of £3 a ton. Even at that they will bn hard to quit. This is the tail-end of the onion season, and shortly stocks on hand will start to sprout. Merchants buying ahead cannot afford to pay too fancy a price with this prospect in view.

On top of this, yesterday’s quotation for onions in Christchurch was £l7 and £lB a ton, presumably for local grown. Judged on this figure, the board’s quote of £l9 to merchants must again be reviewed if the stocks it is holding are to be quitted. While the board juggles with the price of these Japanese onions already in the country, Dominion-grown ones on the Sydney market, according to the latest quotation, are bringing £27 to £29 a ton, with Egyptian at £2B. To tho housewife, the humble onion, a very essential vegetable in the everyday life of the home, is also an expensive luxury. Those on the local market at the moment are of the Japanese variety.