BRITAIN WANTS JAM.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15274, 23 July 1920, Page 3

BRITAIN WANTS JAM.

• » , — ; — , - . LONDON, July 21. The Consumers' Council report recommends .that the Commonwealth be incited, to ship larger quantities of jam, f of which there appears to be, a growirtg^"demand.—A. and N.Z.C.A. «■ r^e> Daily Mail of ■ May 14 states:— Nine million pounds of Australian jam, wliich could bo purchased by wholesalers at 9d a pound and sold cheaply to aonsumcrs, is held up at various ports m this country, where is has been lying since Septciriber 1918. Importers definitely charge the. Minister of Food with responsibility for this situation, which, m view of the imminent rise m the price, of home-manufactured jam to 2s a pound, is at least not edifying. "The point is that we were actually asked to import this jam by lha Food Ministry," said a firm who^ import, large quantities of Australian- jam. "They asked for 25,000 tons, and we arranged by cable for the supply of 24,600 tons. Short- j ljr after .wo met the head of the jam ■ section of the Ministry to adjust -final terms. He then told us that they had i decided not to buy. We do not know <liow far the Ministry was influenced from outside — that is a matter that time must determine. Several wholesale " merchants have told us that the authorities have refused to allow them to purchase this jam."^ The defence of the Ministry of Food is that they did n<jt give a definite order for the jam. "The Ministry was willing to do what it could to encourage the stile, -nnd that is all," said a food official to a Daily Express representative yesterday. "Much of the difficulty is due to the prejudice of the public against tins, while the melon and lemon jnms do nob . appeal to the English palate." I