FRUIT CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 30, 30 October 1942, Page 4

FRUIT CONTROL

Fears Of Retailers Dominion Special Service. AUCKLAND, October 29. The suggestion of a further-exten-sion of Government control over the marketing of fruit is viewed with apprehension >by a group of city retail fruiterers. The concern is based on their unhappy experiences of Government control at. the present time. “We are convinced,” said one of the retailers, “that any extension of the present control system would be in the interests neither of the grower,,nor of the retailor nor of the consumer. Everything that is controlled becomes much higher in price, largely, no doubt, because of the costs of administration and of the increased costs of distribution.”

It was pointed out regarding tomatoes and stone fruit, for instance, that there were so many grades and varieties that it was impossible to compare the first-grade fruit of one grower withthat of another. Standardization was Impossible and the fixing of one price could only work out unfairly and unsatisfactorily. Individual growers, say, of potatoes or pears, came to be known, the retailers said, for the high quality of their produce and the standard of their selection and packing. Consequently there was keen bidding for their produce among those dealing in better quality goods, and the careful and successful grower obtained a deservedly better recompense. However, under the present, system of controlled prices, and the shortage of supplies, retailors had to bid blindly for whatever was put up, and had no means of knowing beforehand what the quality might be or whether the produce was worth more or less than the standard price that had to be paid.