POTATO EMBARGO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 110, 11 May 1936, Page 8

POTATO EMBARGO

AUSTRALIAN RECON SIDE RATION 1 Per Pies.- Association. I CHRISTCHURCH, May ]O. I The lifting of the embargo in Aus tralia against New- Zealand potatoeswill he discussed at a conference of Ministers for Agriculture of all Austra lian States on May 27. according to a 1 statement by Mr. K. Cosgrove, Tas- ’■ manian Minister of Agriculture, to a : reporter to-day. Mr. Cosgrove said he thought the lifting of the embargo would receive very favourable consideration- The* Queensland and New South Wales • Ministers would he strongly in favour I of it as thev were anxious to restore j the citrus fruit trade with New Zea , land. As representative of one of the two I Australian States chiefly interested in ' the potato embargo. Mr. Cosgrove has ' tome to the Dominion to discovci whether New Zealand growers are abb’ to compete in the Australian mark** to the detriment of the home grower-. ’‘One of the things I want to find *• :. here,” he said, “is the price at wh i New Zealand potatoes can profitable be landed in Sydney, which is also our market, and 1 wish to know if it iunduly lower than the price received hy the Tasmanian growers. Our grow- < ers have in the last three years aver- 1 aged only a shade less than £7 a ton. : Mr own opinion is that New Zealand! will be able to land them only at that I price unless in exceptional seasons I when theie is a surplus to be got rid I of. New Zealand potatoes were shut out in the first place on the score of" . disease.” he added, ‘‘but this argu-I rnpnr has now been dropped." Mr. Cosgrove agreed that New Zealand potatoes could do little damage to Australian growers and h« thought there was a good prospect of the em oargn being lifted.