FRUIT MARKETING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23525, 9 December 1939, Page 17

FRUIT MARKETING

Sir, —The recent appeal by the Minister of Marketing for tho co-operation of all retailers in increasing the sale of the coming large crop of apples and pears inaugurates. I hope, a new departmental attitude toward the retail fruiterer, a hard-working body of men and women that havo been consistently slighted in tho past. The commercial activities of the Marketing Division so far as fruit and-vegetables are concerned have been anything but successful and 1 attribute this in no small measure to its constant disinclination to accept advice or counsel from those who havo spent a generation in the trade.

Even prior to the declaration of war, the division failed to keep us advised (private enterprise used to send around weekly advices) of the arrival and quantities of future shipments, so it had become increasingly difficult to regulate our stocks, and shortages or oyersupplios became our common portion, For 10 days recently it was impossible to secure a single orange at the City Markets, vet toward tho end of this period, fruiterers had the mortification of seeing Australian oranges being conveyed around by Government agents and distributed to grocers' shops, a most inequitable procedure. 'lhe lemon curing scheme lias been a complete failure, growers receiving ■such a meagre remuneration that thenare refusing to pick, with the result thnt _ the division is squandering the Empire's precious American excliange in purchasing a commodity that is rotting in our orchards. Tho few lemons available are distributed unfairly. Exorbitant prices are charged for rip< bananas, for often tho division receive* as much as 13s a case for placing bananas in a hot room for four or five days, whereas the usual charge in the days of private enterprise was Is 6d. I sincerely hope that tho Marketing Division will tackle its new-found responsibilities in a more businesslike manner, otherwise wo are about to witness the placing of another rer> largo nail in the coffin of State trading. Every Dog a Bone.