FRUIT AND VEGETABLE ISSUE IN WELLINGTON

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 5

FRUIT AND VEGETABLE ISSUE IN WELLINGTON

GROWERS PLAN STREET SALES AS RETALIATORY MOVE WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA). —Street sales ot fruit and vegetables are planned by the growers in retaliation for the Wellington and Hutt Valley retailers' refusal to buy their produce. Retailers today announced their ban on marts as a protest at the charge of 6d for containers They say stocks of fresh vegetables will suffice consumer needs till the weekend. Retailers will continue to supply hospitals, hotels, board and eating houses, but from what. source the supplies would come was not made clear tonight. Pickets are to be appointed by the Wellington Retail Fruiterers' and Greengrocers' Association to patrol streets to ensure that the ban is maintained by retailers, according to the secretary (Mr. S. Chesney) tonight Pickets will also approach members of the public ouying directly from markets, requesting them not to do so. They will not interfere with any selling arrangements set up by the growers. Mr. Chesney said the fruiterers end greengrocers had the support of many general grocers dealing in those lines. It was expected that many grocers would fall in line by not buying from the marts. When the present stocks were sold no supplies would be brought from outside districts for retailers, Mr. Chesney said. So far as Wellington provincial towns are concerned, subsidiary district fruiterers’ associations are expected to act independently. No official advice of likely action in such centres as Palmerston North, Wanganui, Masterton, Napier and Hastings had been received in Wellington tonight. Soon after the ban was announced this afternoon, the growers approached Wellington City Council officials seeking permission for vendors’ licences to sell produce to the public. It is possible that, as with a parallel dispute between growers and retailers in May, 1946, produce will be sold on the streets from trucks. The council's decision is awaited