POTATOES FROM AUSTRALIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22064, 10 September 1941, Page 4

POTATOES FROM AUSTRALIA

Effect On Coming Season’s Crops

Certified Seed Position

“An aspect of the effect of the Marketing Department's Intention to import potatoes from Australia which has not been commented on,” remarked a prominent merchant when interviewed by a “Timaru Herald” reporter yesterday, “is the position in regard to certified seed.

“The majority of crops grown in South Canterbury are from certified seed,” he continued, “and in most seasons the price ranges from £lO to £l5 a ton. In view of the good work of the Department of Agriculture in encouraging growers to plant the best seed and thus greatly Improve the quality of their product. It must be very disappointing to them to find that the Marketing Division will probably be instrumental In undermining the efforts of the Department of Agriculture. It is hardly likely that growers will sow high-priced seed if there is doubt whether they will' receive a remunerative return from their crops. “When It is recalled that last year potatoes were sent to the tip because it did not pay to handle them, it seems hardly credible that this year growers will be faced with having potatoes imported into the country, which will prevent them from obtaining a reasonable price which will partly recuperate them for their severe losses last year. It would have been far better if the Marketing Department had announced that It was negotiating for the Importation of potatoes instead of leaving growers in complete ignorance until the actual announcement was made that arrangements had been made for shipments from Australia. “It would be disastrous for the North Island growers, who anticipated a good market for their new potatoes, to find that the market was spoilt because of importations by the Marketing Department. The Government assured growers all along that no importations would be made unless prices became unduly high, and as that has not been the case, the growers had every reason to believe that there would be no importations. It would seem that the Member for Kaiapoi, Mr Morgan Williams, may have been correct in anticipating that the Marketing Department intended to import. Value Not High “Taken over a period of years the price of potatoes can hardly be said to have been a payable one to the farmers, and now that the Marketing Department has interested itself in potatoes growers will expect the Marketing Division in a year of surplus and low prices to be able to find a market, especially In Australia which has refused to accept the New Zealand product for years. “It will be remembered,” the speaker concluded, “that up till last year Australia would not admit New Zealand potatoes owing to the bogey of disease. It was merely an excuse to keep the Dominion product out of Australia. It is to ffe hoped that when the imported potatoes arrive that the officers of the Department of Agriculture win subject them to a rigorous inspection. This would certainly be the case before New Zealand potatoes were landed in Australia. The small quantity which was exported last year was subjected to a rigorous examination by the Department’s officers, and even then the Australlan authorities found cause to complain and one of the New Zealand departmental officers made a hurried trip to rectify the matter.”