Wellington Fruit And Vegetable War Is Continuing

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 February 1949, Page 4

Wellington Fruit And Vegetable War Is Continuing

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PAL— Fresh vegetables and smaller quantities of fruit, than the marts offer will be sold in Wellington tomorrow on a competitive basis between the growers and the retailers. Growers whose produce is banned by the retailers because of the container charge dispute will sell from trucks in three city stands. Retailers with dwindling stocks expect to be able to supply customers with fresh vegetables tomorrow. If the ban continues they are likely to b e without fresh vegetables on Monday.

The growers plan to extend their sales to the suburban areas. Mr B. V. Cooksley, president o[ the Commercial Growers of New Zealand, said the president of the women's organisation in Lower Hutt had offered to arrange women to operate stands when they could be set up there.

The growers say they will operate stands as long as the ban continues. Today they launched an advertising campaign. Retailers, on the other hand, are determined not to buy any produce with container charges added. The secretary of the Retail Fruiterers’ and Greengrocers’ Association (Mr S. Chesney) said he would lodge a protest with the Health Department on the ground that the sale of produce from open trucks would be a bicach of the regulations. Mr Cooksley said th e growers were united in their action. Steps would be taken to ensure tl'Z-t attempts were not made by retailers to buy direct from any grower without container charges. His organisation would also see that the produce was not diverted to retailers instead of marts and growers’ stands while th. retailers adopted their present attitudeThere are no signs of an early settlement. Confidence was expressed by the retailers’ secretary (Mr Chesney). He said he had been in telephone communication with the national president of the Retailers’ Federation (Mr I B. Junkers) in Auckland, who had told him that the growers there were

showing a tendency to weaken. According to this advice, growers in Ohakune had instructed their Auckland brokers to sell without container charges. It was possible, Mr Chesney said, that Wellington might be supplied through Auckland with contain-er-free produce some time next week. The general managr of the New Zealand Fruit Growers’ Federation (Mr A. Osborne), in a statement tonight said the results of sales at the markets today were most satisfactory, particularly from the point of view of housewives' support. Reports from Auckland and Christchurch had indicated that similar support had been given.