POTATO PRICES.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17131, 18 June 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

POTATO PRICES.

NOT SATISFACTORY. MR D. JONES’S OPINION. The following letter has been sent by Mr D. Jones, M.P., lo the president of tbe North Canterbury branch of the Farmers’ Union (Mr J. D. Hall) regarding potato prices:—• “I should like to take this opportunity of bringing under the notice of your executive the unsatisfactory position of the potato crop and potato prices in New Zealand this year. “For the last few weeks farmers have been pushing their potatoes on the market more rapidly than they can lie absorbed, and tiie consequence is the exceedingly unsatisfactory position of the market to-day. With a perishable commodity like the potato, it is sometimes necessary t.o sell considerably below the cost of production, but it appears to me that this should not bo the. case in the present season. “I have made extensive inquiries in the lasL few weeks from growers over the whole of Canterbury and North Otago, and with few exceptions I am satisfied that the potato crop is considerably below the average yield, and in a fair percentage of cases disastrously so. It is not, uncommon to find growers on good land digging under t.wo tons per acre of table varieties. I should like your executive lo consider flic question to see whether your inquiries confirm the statement 1 have made.

“In my opinion the farmer to-day should be getting at least £b per ton on trucks for bis potatoes, and if Ibis opinion became general and the farmer iirmly held to the price, within one month this would be the minimum price in Canterbury, and even I hen with the low yield the crop would not be very profitable to the farmer. I should be glad if your executive would consider the advisability of making some statement to the farmer along these lines.

“It is being freely stated that there is a very large crop in Australia and Tasmania, and that there will be a surplus available for export to New Zealand later in the season. This, of course, is very problematical. 1 cannot, however, conceive that it is possible for the Government to even consider allowing Australian potatoes to come into New Zealand this year. “Australia has made a bogey, of the disease in our potatoes purely as a means to place an embargo against us. In their opinion they have sufficient potatoes for their own needs and I hoy simply eftsrt the door against New Zealand. The powdery scab which they allege was in our potatoes is probably more prevalent in Australia than in New Zealand. We used extreme measures in New Zealand last year io ensure that no diseased potatoes went into Australia. Their potatoes in the past have been allowed to come into New Zealand practically without restriction, but it is inconceivable now that potatoes with the same disease which it is alleged has been the cause of the embargo against New Zealand potatoes, could be permitted to come into New Zealand from Australia’..