HONEY SUPPLIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26227, 10 August 1946, Page 6

HONEY SUPPLIES

LITTLE FOR CITY, CONSUMERS ALLEGED BLACK MARKET OPERATIONS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SUGAR Honey is practically unprocurable in Dunedin at the present time, a state of affairs that has been largely brought about, it is believed, by what amounts to black market operations. The housewife find that it is almost impossible to buy honey in the city, but at the same time manufacturers are obtaining large supplies at prices above the retail limit allowed by the Price Tribunal. They are using it in place of sugar for the manufacture of certain sweet goods. The marketing controls on honey have been removed and producers have been able this year to sell to whom they choose. Prior to the removal of these controls, producers have sent their honey to the Internal Marketing Division for distribution throughout the country, and, of course, they had to accept a fixed price for it. Now that the marketing controls have been lifted, many of them are selling it at retail or even higher prices. The result of this new method of marketing is that the only sure way for a city resident in New Zealand to obtain sufficient supplies of honey is to buy direct from the producer and to pay retail price for it. This is why honey is plentiful in country districts where bee-keepers operate. Motorists passing apiaries are also able to obtain supplies of honey. Like the sale of dairy butter, the plentiful supply of honey in country districts is another benefit enjoyed by people in rural areas.

• But the more serious aspect of honey marketing as it operates to-day is the way in which large quantities of honey are being sold direct to manufacturers who use it to augment their supplies of sugar. This enables them to increase their output of sweetened goods, but it prevents the consumer from getting a fair share of honey as honey. It is reported that prices considerably above the figure fixed by the Price Tribunal are being paid, with the result that it does not pay producers to consider the ordinary consumers of honey. Of course, when sugar rationing is removed then the demand for honey for manufacturing will stop, and the producers will have to depend once again on the export trade and the genera* public to absorb their honey. Whether they will recapture the public market remains to be seen.