POTATO FAMINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26354, 8 January 1947, Page 4

POTATO FAMINE

STAND BY GROWERS PRICES UNSATISFACTORY NO DELIVERIES TO MERCHANTS Housewives in Dunedin have for some weeks past experienced considerable difficulty in obtaining sufficient vegetables to meet their house-hold-requirements. This has been due largely to the effect of the poor season on supplies. Tlia position has now been further complicated by the decision of market gardeners not to supply new potatoes to merchants in the city, but to sell to the public direct from the* gardens at 4d lb. This decision, which arose from'the dissatisfaction of the growers with the fixed price of the new season’s crop sold this month, has created a virtual famine of potatoes in Dunedin. It is now almost impossible to obtain supplies from most retail stores in the city, and dinners are being served without potatoes in many Dunedin homes. While merchants are naturally dissatisfied with a situation which has developed without warning and which has left them in the position of being unable to provide essential supplies, not only to the public, but also to hospitals and other institutions, they agree that the growers have a legitimate grievance. They are supporting the growers’ requests for an amendment in controlled prices to make it worth while for gardeners to resume supplying the markets. Effort to Supply Customers , In the meantime, in contravention of the control system, some retailers are themselves buying from market gardens at 4d—Jd under the fixed retail price—in order to obtain small supplies for their customers. At least one retailer was reported to be selling new potatoes obtained in this way at the price of 6d lb. The situation has been aggravated by the almost complete loss of the crop in the Oamaru district this season by frost. A Dunedin merchant was in touch with Timaru, Christchurch, Nelson, and Motueka by telephone yesterday, but was unable to obtain supplies of potatoes for the local market. Merchants in the city, interviewed by a Daily Times reporter yesterday, said that consumers of potatoes would have a particularly lean time until at least the end of January. Housewives would be well advised to conserve their supplies of potatoes as' much as possible. Merchants’ Position A meeting of the Dunedin Fruit and Produce Auctioneers’ Association and egg and produce merchants was held yesterday afternoon to discuss the position, and it was unanimously, decided to support the growers’ application for the continuance of the December prices for new potatoes until the end of January, with the January price order to come into force in February. Representations to this effect were made after the meeting to the authorities in Wellington. In a statement made after the meeting, members said there was no prospect of potatoes coming on to the market for at least two weeks. The growers at Outram as 1 a whole had applied to the Price Tribunal to carry the December fixed price of £35 a ton for first-grade potatoes, 1 and £3l for under-grade, into January to recompense them for the season being a month late. They were refused this concession, and the price order of £25 for first-grade and £22 for undergrade became operative for the whole of January. The. growers decided-that it was not profitable to dig and left the crop growing. Only about onethird of the crop was dug at Outram, and practically none came to the market from Oamaru, which usually provides large quantities at this time of the year. Following an advertisement by the market gardeners at Outram that they would supply new potatoes to the public at the Price Tribunal price of 4d per lb in case lots on the ground or free on rail at Outram no supplies have come to Dunedin through the usual channels, the statement added, and merchants have been at their wits’ end to explain the position to their clients. Regular customers were unable to understand why they could not obtain potatoes but supplies to everyone had ceased. As the situation showed little sign of improving, a representative meeting decided that the sooner the position was made known to the public the better. “It seems an anomaly that retailers are actually purchasing from growers at a price considerably higher than that which the merchant is compelled by law to pay,” the statement continues. “ Inquiries from the Price Tribunal indicated that a consumer can purchase direct from a grower at 4d per lb, but retailers who do so are breaking the conditions of the price order dated August 19, 1946. Less Home Growing “Another factor contributing to the shortage is that the early variety of Jersey Bennes potatoes is now not being grown in any. quantity. The shortage of this variety was caused originally by the price order on this type of seed potatoes,” the statement continued. “These potatoes, when sold as table potatoes in’ December, brought 4£d lb, but when they were held and sprouted, and sold as seed, the grower ■ could obtain only 2Jd. These early seed potatoes a few years ago were eagerly sought after by the small, backyard. gardener, who used to take a pride in having new potatoes for Christmas dinner from his own garden. These gardeners now have to depend on later varieties which will not be dug until February. With the 40-hour .week, it was expected that larger quantities of potatoes would be grown by householders but this has not been the case, and apparently most people prefer to buy their new potatoes from the stores. “ Merchants who have contracted to supply hospitals and other institutions are deeply concerned at the decision of the growers,” the statement concluded, “as they feel they have an obligation to keep them supplied as has been done in the past.”