Submissions In Brief

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 20

Submissions In Brief

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, May 10.

Over most of the year, apples and pears in the shops were tasteless, soft, and even dry, submitted an Auckland housewife to the Apple and Pear Inquiry yesterday. Her conclusion was that the Apple and Pear Board’s operations, with emphasis on cold storage as the answer to all problems, had completely damped down the normal competitive efforts of fruitgrowers as applied under free marketing, she said. Could she. a mother of four, nossibly supply adequate fruit to her children at the prices often ruling? she asked. For that reason, she had gradually come to regard fruit as an expensive extra—-a luxury, in fact. If this state of affairs continued, the community would become established in such an attitude towards fruit. Price “Too High” Describing himself as a “family man,’’ Mr J. Cox (Paekakariki) said in a written submission that he felt the price of fruit direct from the grower was too high. He bought two cases every fortnight when prices were within his reach, but he was frequently priced out of the market, as he reduced his buying when apples were more than £1 a case, and stopped altogether when they were more than 255. He noted that Wellington retailers could offer fruit delivered to the suburbs at a price no higher than he paid for fruit which he must collect from the nearest railway station. Distribution Cost The cost of distribution of apples and pears from grower to consumer was too high, the secretary of the Wellington Retail Fruitgrowers' Association (Mr C. A. Holland) said in evidence to the inquiry. This was revealed in the disparity in prices for fruit sold direct from the grower to consumer, and that sold to the retailer by the New Zealand Apple and Pear Board. Mr Holland said that if the grower received a better return by selling direct to the consumer than he would receive from the board, it was time the price gap was closed. Inspection Of Fruit Department of Agriculture inspectors should inspect apples and pears on the market floor, the president of the New Zealand Federation of Retail Fruiterers and Greengrocers (Mr J. Beasley) submitted. “It would be of great help to the trade.” he said. Mr Beasley said other fruits were already inspected at the markets by the department’s inspectors, and an extension of their supervision to apples and pears should not be difficult. Mr Beasley said it would be an advantage to retailers if all fruit was clearly labelled with the grower's name and address. It would be a good idea, too. if retailers indicated the grade of apples and pears they offered far sale.