RETAIL PRICE OF APPLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20970, 5 September 1931, Page 13

RETAIL PRICE OF APPLES.

PROTEST BY A GROWER. REPLY BY FRUIT AUCTIONEERS. The difference between the prices paid for apples to the grower and the retail charges made for the fruit by shopkeepers is the subject of a protest from a correspondent, who gives details of the sale of a number of cases of apples grown by him. The correspondent says he obtained a return of £8 Is 3d for a consignment of 35 cases, each of 401b., and when all the charges, including cool storage, had been met, he received only a case. For that he had to provide the apples, manure, spraying and labour, with the result that he had a profit of only Id a case, whereas the apples were being sold retail at from 3d to 4d a lb. " This apparently is a consignment of Delicious apples, which have' been affected by brown core lately and have been selling at a low price on that account," said an Auckland fruit auctioneer yesterday, when the complaint was referred to him. It was incorrect to say that Delicious were selling at from 3d to 4d a lb. retail, as a number of Queen Street shops were selling those apples at 51b. for a shilling. At that price there was not an undue profit, as even if retailers were able to procure fruit free -they would not bo able to sell in most shops at less than l£d a lb., on account of their overhead charges. It was in the interests of auctioneers, who worked on a commission basis, to obtain as high a price for the grower as possible. Another auctioneer stated that the price obtained by the correspondent wis the ruling value for fruit packed in Maich and kept in cool store, as the correspondent's apples apparently were. After being kept for six months the apples would show waste and bruising and were not worth more at the ruling market price. Most of the present supplies from cool store comprised fruit which had been rejected for export, but was good enough to sell locally and was kept in store for that purpose.