ORANGE SHORTAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 25 November 1936, Page 4

ORANGE SHORTAGE

SHIPPING STRIKE AND EMBARGO BLAMED PRICES RISING The fruit buying public will receive an unpleasant surprise when it goes to purchase oranges during the next month. Oranges are becoming scarce. They have been selling at four and five for Is in Nelson, but the cost to the retailer is now 3Jd each and he naturally wants something above cost price. A local fruit retailer explained this morning that the rise in price had been brought about first by an event which was beyond New Zealand’s control —the American shipping strike —and secondly, by the New Zealand Government’s embargo on Australian oranges. There is a complete embargo on New South Wales oranges, and South Australian are allowed into the country only for about three months, during September, October and November.

Jamaican oranges are the only ones available till after Christmas. The retailer who was approached said that he had ordered 50 cases from Auckland, but had been advised that he might be able to get ten of them. “There is no possibility of us supplying all orders on hand,” he was told, and he was reepmmended to get supplies elsewhere if he could. There will be no other shipment until early January. , Prices are going up, and there seems to be no chance of them coming down for a while. Fruit for which the shopkeeper had been paying about 25s a case, were obtained through a buyer in Wellington at 60s a case, plus freight to Nelson. The same oranges brought 66s a case at auction. “We have been selling oranges at less than they cost us to-day. They were five for Is; now they cost us about 3Jd each,” concluded the fruiterer.