GOLDEN EGGS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3053, 14 April 1917, Page 10

GOLDEN EGGS

THE PRICES OF "NEW LAID." The present price of new-laid eggs in Wellington is 2s. 9d. per dozen wholesale, and the retailer must ask at least 3s. a dozen, or 3d. per egg. Even at this price the eggs are m fairly keen demand, owing to a pronounced shortage of supplies. The price advanced 6d. per dozen this week loc--ally. The Canterbury Egg Farmers' Association sold , eggs at auction on Tuesday at 2s. 3d. per dozen in Christchurch, but that price is expected to be exceeded a,t the next sale. The increase in the price of eggs to a level that is regarded as prohibitive by many consumers is accompanied, by a strong demand by the producers for the exclusion of Asiatic eggs, whicn at present are used largely by confectioners and bakers in this country. At the same time there is a proposal on" foot among organised .poultry farmers in the north to export New Zealand eggs in liquid form (broken into barrels and preservatised) in_ order to "avoid the necessity of selling at unprofitable prices during the productive li&ason" in this country. "A man who merely buys eggs may be ignorant of the finer points, of the productive end of the business," 6aid a Wellington grocer yesterday, "but it certainly appears to me that the public is not getting a square deal. The enormous increase imthe price of eggs is not explained fully by the increase in the prices of the foodstuffs' -Used by the poultry farmers.. -The egg circles, poultry associations, and so forth are engaged 'putting their business on a, profitable footing," and the public is footing the bill. Consumption decreases under these conditions, butthe demand remains keen, and there is a, big shortage of locally; produced eggs in New Zealand. I have seen it stated that we produce 10,000,000 o<*gs in a year and consume 26,000,000. Any talk of blocking importations in these circumstances seems utterly unreasonable." .