POTATO PRICES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22297, 13 June 1942, Page 4

POTATO PRICES

New Order Issued (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 12. The maximum retail prices at which potatoes may be sold to New Zealand between now and the end of November are fixed to a price order gazetted to-aay. For June and July the maximum that can be charged in Canterbury and Otago will be 15d a lb. At all other main port centres it will be 2d a lb and to country districts it will be 21d a lb. For the remaining months of August to November, inclusive, the maximum retail prices are to be increased by id a lb. Subject to these maximum prices, the retailer must not charge a price which exceeds his own costs for supplies, including grading and transport charges, plus 33 1-3 per cent. The new order, which does not apply to new potatoes, is in substitution of the order dealing with potato prices issued by the Price Tribunal last month. The order also fixes the rates to be charged by growers, distributors and wholesalers.

The Minister of Industries and Commerce (Hon. D. G. Sullivan) said that these prices applied only .to potatoes grown in the South Island, and they did not apply to any such potatoes that had been sold on or before May 14, and were actually delivered to the purchaser on or before June 30. The order did not apply to seed potatoes planted at any time after March 31.