POTATO SALES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24156, 24 December 1941, Page 3

POTATO SALES

PRICE-FIXING ORDER WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 9., {"BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Tuesday Owing to climatic influences the early potato crop yields this season have been below normal. Likewise all these crops have been late in reaching maturity. Consequently the greater part of the demand for early potatoes has had to be met from Pukekohe from a crop which is substantially lower than normal and is now to all intents and purposes exhausted. Prices which in the ordinary way would at this time of the year be from £l2 to £l4 a ton wholesale have risen to the unusually high level of about £46 a ton. With a view to providing reasonable protection to the eoifsumer and at the same time ensuring a reasonable return to the grower and the middlemen the Price Tribunal has by way of price order, fixed the maximum ceiling prices. The order states that the maximum price which may be charged by growers for potatoes of fair average quality, inclusive of any brokerage or other selling commission ordinarily payable by growers, shall not exceed a sum equivalent to £2O a ton f.0.b., 5.1., at grower's station.

The maximum price which may be charged in respect of sales by way of wholesale for potatoes of fair average quality shall not exceed: (a)_ Proportionate amount of the price paid to the grower, plus (b) proportionate amount of the charges "actually incurred by way of freight and otherwise- up to tlie point of wholesale delivery by way of first wholesale sale, plu.i (c) an amount a ton not more than eight and a-half per cent of the total of (a) and (b) above mentioned. (Growers' invoice weights to be used as the basis of calculation.) * The maximum price which may be charged in respect of sales by way of retail for potatoes of fair average quality shall not exceed (a) the proportionate amount of the price paid therefore, plus (b) the proportionate amount of the charges actually incurred by way of freight and otherwise up to the point of retail delivery, plus (c) an amount not more than 33 1-3 per cent of the total of (a) and.(b) above-mentioned, calculated on the growers' _ weights or on wholesale invoice weights, whichever is applicable, calculated in the case of sales of lots in excess of 31b. to the next highest penny and otherwise to the next highest halfpenny.