AUSTRALIAN ORANGES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 280, 10 November 1934, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN ORANGES

The Wellington Boycott MR. MUELLER’S COMMENT By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 9. “If I could make known to the public all that is taking place, I feel sure they would appreciate that what is being done is in tho best interests of tho consuming public, as well as of the whole of the trade, including the retailers,’’ said Mr C. N, S. Mueller, New Zealand representative of the Murray Citrus Growers’ Co-operative Assn, of Australia, Ltd., to-day, commenting on the boycott of Australian oranges by Wellington fruiterers on the grounds of poorness of quality and excessive price. “The position that has been taken up is that tho retailers must have the fruit, as it lands, and let any surplus from a previous consignment continue to deteriorate,” continued Mr Mueller. “If Mr Hatch and his associates conduct their business in this manner it is no wonder they talk of their losses, but 1 cannot countenance such procedure with any grower’s fruit. As fruit arrives from Australia and America in cool storage, it is only exhibiting ignorance to state that our fruit deteriorates because it is held in New Zealand for two weeks in cool store. The fruit we send to England remains in tho cooler for two months, and your New Zealand apple's are held for months with no detrimental effect. “With reference to the small fruit complaint, in Australia small fruit has a,n enhanced value at times when prices rise generally at this time of tho year. My growers were under the impression that they were shipping what was required rather than something objectionable. During the season I have consistently made good retailers’ legitimate losses. I have not permitted variation in price, and the market has never been without oranges. What the retailer really wants is difficult to understand. What I do know is that on the present prices marked up in shop windows the retailor is getting more in two weeks for a case of oranges than the grower gets in twelve months, but I have no quarrel with that position, as I know that the costs of retailing are high. “With reference to the statement alleged to have been made by the secretary of the retailers at Dunedin that oranges were very scarce on the Dunedin market, I have his personal assurance that the statement was not made by him, and if anyone wants 1000 cases of oranges at Dunedin I can supply them from stocks and to a very much larger extent the same applies in every port from Dunedin to Auckland, so that the alleged shortage is all moonshine.”