POTATOES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 127, 11 May 1936, Page 8

POTATOES.

Lifting Of Australian Embargo. j * WILL BE CONSIDERED. , ,'Pt GJ6A6JJ &Or-iOU Press Association —Copyright. Christchurch, May 10. The lifting of the embargo in Australia against New Zealand potatoes will be discussed at a conference o e the Ministers of Agriculture of all Australian States on May 27, according to a statement made by Mr. R. Cosgrove, Tasmanian Minister of Agriculture, to-day. Mr. Cosgrove said he thought the lifting of the embargo would receive very favourable consideration. Queensland and Now South Wales Ministers would be strongly in favour of it, for they were eager to restore the citrus fruit trade with New Zealand.

As a representative of one of the two Australian States chiefly interested in the potatb embargo Mr. Cosgrove has come to the Dominion to discover whether New Zealand growers are able to compete in the Australian markets to the .detriment of home growers. “One of (he things I wabt to find out here,” he said, “is the price at which New Zealand potatoes can'profitably be landed at Sydney, which is also our market, and I wish to know if it is unduly lower than the price received by Tasmanian growers. ■ ■ , '"

“Our growers have in the last three years averaged only a shade lower lhan £7 a ton. My own opinion is that New Zealand will be abk to land them only at that price, except in abnormal seasons, when there is a surplus to be disposed of. New 1 Zealand potatoes were shut out in the first place on the score of disease, but this argument has now been dropped.” Mr. Cosgrove agreed that New Zealand potatoes could do little damage to Australian growers, and he thought there was a good prospect of the embargo being lifted.