SUPPLY OF ORANGES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19199, 16 December 1936, Page 5

SUPPLY OF ORANGES

AUSTRALIAN SHIPMENTS FIXED N.Z. PRICES WHOLESALE AND RETAIL (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Following the decision of the Government to ensure that ample supplies of oranges were available to the public at reasonable prices, arrangements for the importation of 12,000 cases of oranges from fruit fly free areas in Australia was announced last'night by the Minister of industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan.. . To further implement its scheme- ot importation, tho Government has taken action to fix the wholesale and retail prices along similar lines to those which were followed in connection with the two recent shipments from Jamaica. These prices are set out in regulations published yesterday. The wholesale rates are 22s 6d per export case of approximately a bushel and a-half, and 16s a bushel case. The retail prices, fixed range from four for Is to nine for Is. The regulations make provision for oranges to be assembled and classified accoi’ding to count and for the maiking ot each separate lot with the number of the count and the number that are to be sold .for Is. This provision is included so that the public will know exactly what they are buying. Shipments are already arriving, and despite the shortage which exists in Australia through recent heavy shipments to the Far East due to the inability of America to supply the markets owing to the shipping strike, and also due to bad weather conditions making it impracticable to pick fruit, the Dominion is assured of its -requirements being amply filled, said the Minister.