MARKETING OF EGGS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23511, 27 May 1938, Page 10

MARKETING OF EGGS

AN UNSATISFACTORY POSITION ORGANISED PLAN NECESSARY (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 26. Not only housewives and grocers, but poultrymen themselves, are agreed that the present system of marketing eggs is most unsatisfactory, and that there is urgent need for an investigation and reform. Officials of the New Zealand Poultry Board stated to-day that nothing could be done to improve the position until an organised egg marketing plan was formulated for the whole Dominion, and was put into effect. Such a plan had been laid before the Government, but the Minister responsible had deferred action. Mr A. E. Knowles, of Auckland, chairman of the Poultry Board, and Mr S. F. Marshall, Christchurch, also of the board, were in Wellington to-day, and in an interview emphasised the unsatisfactory nature of the present position. , ~ “It has been the endeavour of the board ever since it was formed to bring forward a plan by which, with the co-operation of the Government, we shall be able to put the egg on the housewife’s table almost as fresh as when it left the nest,” Mr Knowles said. “As a Producers’ Board we are striving to give the consuming public an egg of guaranteed quality. Under the Food and Drugs Act the Government rightly insists that all foodstuffs sold on the market shall be of good quality, yet you can sell almost anything with a shell round it. The producer who is doing his best to give the public a fair deal puts out a fresh egg and very often it becomes involved in intermediate process.! and delays of transport and distribution before it comes to the consumer's hands. “All that would be eliminated by a proper scheme,” Mr Knowles said, “ but there is no such scheme in operation to-day to prevent this. It is necessary to conceive a plan that will start at (he nest and lake the egg right through the processes of retailing until it arrives at the consumer's hands. The board has long advocated a plan which would ensure the expeditious handling of eggs right from the poultry farm to the breakfast table. This plan has been laid before the Government, but the Minister (Mr Nash) stated that no immediate, action could be taken to consider putting it into effect. A rise in the price of eggs cannot be avoided at this time of the year. It is an unnatural time for birds to reproduce, and production is consequently limited to professional poultry-farmers whose business it is to supply eggs at all seasons of the year. The board realises, on the other hand, that there is a limit to the price which people can reasonably be expected to pay, but this limit unfortunately must be determined by the fact that the poultry-farmer has to purchase cereal and meal foodstuffs for his birds from industries which arc themselves subsidised. That is the dominating factor in the price of eggs.”

Sir Knowles said that by refrigeration and other methods, the question of keeping eggs from a season of abundance to times of comparative scarcity had been considered by the board in its marketing scheme. Excessive fluctuations were naturally to the interest neither of the producer nor the consumer. It had been suggested that Wellington was a dump-ing-ground for the surplus eggs of the rest of the country. That was not wholly the position. Wellington did not produce enough eggs for her own consumption, and relied on the South Island for her supply, but under a marketing plan there should be no possibility of holding eggs in the south so long as to be unfit to be placed on the Wellington market. “At present the whole thing is so unsatisfactory that nothing can be done until an organised marketing scheme has been formulated for the whole Dominion," he added.