EGG MARKETING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 103, 4 May 1938, Page 12

EGG MARKETING

FINE WEATHER IN MARCH UPSETS PLANS PRICE STILL BELOW RECORD [ Per Press Association.! WELLINGTON, May 3. Local consumers have had causfe during the past week so to envy the Dunedin public in the matter of eggs, the wholesale price in WellingI ton being equal to the retail price in Dunedin. Inquiries to-day from the Internal Marketing Department revealed that the egg market this year has been one of the most difficult ever experienced. April and May are months when eggs are in shortest supply, but this year arrangements to meet th? position were somewhat thrown out of gear by the unusually fine weather towards the end of March and early last month, which kept the supply above the customary level for the period. After the requirements of the local market had been provided for, the surplus was exported, with the result that the market was more or less caught on the hop. Prices went up so high that people started murmuring that eggs had never been so costly before. Reference to the records, however, shows that A grade eggs last year were 2s 9Jd and the lowest April-May quotation during the depression was 2s 2id in 1934. Last yeai s maximum was also the maximum in 1931, but in the previous year the top price was 3\ sd. Except for a rise to 3s lOd in 1927, the top price from 1924 to 1928 was constant at 3s 4d. In 1922, a slump year, it was as low as 2s lOd, but in the previous year it went up to 4s 3d and in 1920 the record for the years since the war was reached at 4s 6d. In addition to the shortage of supply the price has been forced up this season by the increased demand resulting from the greater public spending power.