Mr. Cullen On What Caused Potato Famine

Chronicle (Levin), 5 November 1949, Page 5

Mr. Cullen On What Caused Potato Famine

GREYTOWN, Nov. 4. Reiterating his earlier statements the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Cullen) tonight in Greytown attributed the pre sent shortage of potatoes to the fact that thousands of tons had rotted in tht Routh Island. The total acreage of po tatoes for which the Internal Marketing Division had contracted last year was 2800 acres more than the previous year, Mr Cullen said normally in areas which grew early potatoes the yield was three to five tons an acre. In the Hawke's Bay district there was a yield of 10 tons to the acre, and there were thousands of tons of potatoes in excess. Mr Cullen said he tried to export the .potatoes to other countries, but the only buyer was the Middle East which would have involved an uneconomie subsidy. He refused to do that. Under the contract terms the Internal Marketing Department had agreed to pay a fair average qualitv price for potatoes held at the end of November. The pit:in the South Island in view of the climatic conditions started to decay, so matters was discussed with Cahinet. It was agreed that the pay-out would be made in October, and a loss of £130,(101) was thus incurred by the Internal Mar keting Department. Mr Cullen critieised the action of a weekly newspaper for censuring the Minister and his department in the handling of the potato shortage. That pa per, the Minister said, belied its name. "Ts there any shortage of potatoes in Greytown ?" asked Mr Cullen. "It looks.to me tonight as if you people are short of nothing. ' '