BUYING FROM GROWERS

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

BUYING FROM GROWERS

“Stab In The Back”

(NZ. Press Association)

WELLINGTON. May 10

A suggestion that retailers be allowed to buy direct from fruitgrowers would be a stab in the back to the pip fruitgrowers, even those who now put forward the suggestion, said Mr H. Osborne, a Hastings orchardist, in submissions to the Apple and Pear Inquiry today. Such a suggestion, if carried out, would wreck any orderly marketing scheme, said Mr Osborne. In no district could growers be given the right to sell direct to retailers and still enjoy the protection of the Apple and Pear Marketing Act. They could not have it both ways, he said.

If the marketing scheme was smashed, not for long would any Orohardist receive good prices. Not many retailers would buy direct from fruitgrowers. The middle-man would soon insert himself again. The Auckland fruitgrower might feel himself secure with a small fruit supply compared with the large Auckland market, but the Auckland market was a Hawke's Bay growers' market as well as the Auckland growers' market. In a "free-for-all,” he felt the Hawke’s Bay grower could undersell the Auckland grower on that market.