EGG MARKETING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 4

EGG MARKETING

PROPER CHANNELS

APPEAL TO PRODUCERS

CONSUMERS’ NEEDS

“If all eggs go through the proper channels more will be made available for the consuming areas,” said Mrs T. Peel at the annual meeting of the Poverty Bay Registered Poultry Keepers’ Association last evening when reporting on the business of the Dominion conference of registered poultry keepers.

She said the plight of the Wellington people was serious in regard to the egg shortage and a cause of that situation was the increasing sale of eggs at the farm gates. Proposals were made to the Government to prevent large-scale direct sales of that nature.

Support for the correct methods of marketing was in the interests of the producers because if the producers did not “get the eggs flowing into Wellington the Government would be tempted to listen to the complaints of the Wellington people and give further serious consideration to the importation of eggs from Australia.”

To give an idea of the requirements of the Wellington public. Mrs Peel said that 35.000 dozen eggs per day were needed to give one person one egg per day. To cater for a ration of one egg per ration book 16,000 dozen eggs were required. 10,000 dozen eggs were needed tor priorities and shipping requirements amounted to from 8000 to 10.000 dozen. Last week only 8000 dozen eggs passed through the egg floors in the city. She made an appeal to the producers in the Gisborne district to market their eggs correctly through the channels provided to ensure that the flow of eggs went to the right quarters. She said that after considering the effects of the present fowl-feed situation. the Post-war Egg-marketing Committee was of the opinion that no greater quantities of eggs would be available this year. It recommended that egg rationing be continued. Because of the feed shortage, the committee recommended that, in the interests of consumers, some form of subsidy should be continued; and that egg rationing be continued in the interests of consumers in times of shortage. Encouragement of maximum consumption. through publicity, was advocated when production reached or exceeded present consumption demands. It was the unanimous opinion of the committee that some form of control and organisation in egg-marketing should also be continued. It considered that a price based on unrestricted supply and demand was not in the best interests of the producers or consumers. A guaranteed minimum and a fixed maximum price, with flexibility for fixing prices between those two points under authority of the controlling body, was suggested as the best method in the meantime for returning to the producer a proper cost of production.

The committee also recommended that the control of egg marketing should be vested in a representative body,- consisting of four members elected by the poultry industry, and four to represent the Government and consumers, and with power to appoint its own chairman, who would not have a casting vote. One recommendation of considerable importance to poultry keepers was that eggs in the shell should not be imported unless there was a general deterioration in production, resulting in totally inadequate supplies being available to the consuming public. “We found that the spread of consumption of eggs has changed in the past few years,” said Mr. R. P. Fraser. Director of Internal Marketing and chairman of the committee. “Not only has the purchasing power of the people increased, but its incidence has changed. People who seven or eight years ago did not think of buying eggs at high prices, have been able to compete with others in the short-quantity periods ” Mr. Fraser said he realised there was still great room for improvement in the handling of eggs, but while they were in short supply he favoured a continuance of the policy of “a lot of oeople geting a few eggs rather than a few people getting a lot nf eggs.”