FRUIT SUBSIDY PAY-OUT

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 March 1939, Page 7

FRUIT SUBSIDY PAY-OUT

TROUBLE FOR MINISTER [per press association.l CHRISTCHURCH, March 9. The Government’s guaranteed price to fruit-growers for last season’s crop has created an embarrassing situation for the Minister of Marketing. This opinion is firmly held by members of the New Zealand Fruit-growers’ Federation. No official information is available concerning the amount of subsidy to be paid, or the expenditure involved. Payment is expected at the end of this month, and estimates of the amount support the prediction made early in the season, last year, that the Government would be faced with a pay-out of over £200,000. a sum greatly in excess of anything anticipated 0y the Minister. Federation officials base their estimate on apples only, because it is believed that other varieties of fruit were sold at an avearge price in excess of the Government guarantee of 5/2 per bushel, f.o.b. They believe that 2,000,000 cases of apples were sold on the internal market, at an average price of 3/- per case. That means a subsidy payment of 2/2 per case, compared with the 1937 season, when the subsidy was inaugurated. Last season’s pay-out was bound to be exceptionally heavy. In 1937, the amount of the subsidy was a shade over 4d per case, and aggregated about £40,000. Last season, however, there was a bumper crop, and halfway through the marketing period, there was a glut.