New Zealand Produce.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 84, 6 October 1896, Page 2

New Zealand Produce.

o HOW CAN THE HOME MARKET BE IMPROVED? [Article No. l.| It isjonly after considerable perturbation that I bave decided to pen the following notes regarding the distribution of New Zealand produce in this j country. This matter has received so i j much atteution from those who are far ' more prominently connected with the subji ct than I can profess to be, and the \ adv.ce of experts has been so often laid i befc c the producers in New Zealand, j that I feel it may be quite unnecessary on my part to put forward n_3' opinions j regatdingit. I However, noticing a paragraph in a letter from " The Home Correspondent" in several N.Z. papers, in which I am reported as counselling the farmers of New Zealand attacking London by opening shops for the sale of their produce, I feel constrained shortly to write you. Tbe paragraph referred to hardly expresses correctly my views, and I desire to state clearly my proposals and my reasons for same. lam encouraged to offer my remarks by the kindly reference, which I see has on several occasions been made in various papers throughout the colony, to my enterprise in Manchester. In the first place I may remark that I consider the demand for New Zealand produce is as yet steal!, compared with what, by judicious management, it might very shortly become. The quality of the best New Zealand produce— and why with proper care should it not all be best ?— is allowed by all experts to be unbeaten. Wholesale buyers and many retailers know this, but the consumers are unaware of the fact. (It is really surprising how very little is known by tbe general British public concerning New Zealand. Hardly anything ; and in the majority of cases, where that little is known, Ne sv Zealand and Australia are most thoroughly confounded). The wholesale houses, being as a rule very conservative, and having been used for years to work in grooyes, handliug particular lines of produce, are loath to introduce new business. They will buy New Zealand produce at a price, but they do not care to introduce it to the consumer as a new article, or to foster a demand for it, in case that, by creating increased enquiry, they so raise prices in the market upon themselves. OE course you will allow this is only natural, but I certainly think it is a state of things that ouyht not to be allowed to exist. The brokers, acting under the instructions of tlie agents who represent the New Zealand producers in this country for the sale of their consignments, are as a body respectable and honest, and I believe try to obtain the best price they can for their clients, but the circumstances of the market are against them. They have to sell to buyers whose business it is to buy in the open market what will pay them best, and who try to make as much profit out of their purchases as possible ; and they have to sell an article for which thero is no special demand on the part of consumers, and in fact pven more than this, against which a very considerable amount of unreasonable prejudice exists. Seldom, if ever, does a consumer think of asking for New Zealnnd butter or cheese. Therefore, although both these commodities are sold, no demand is encouraged for them. A little more bas been done in trying to create a demand for New Zealand mutton, but that little has been undermined by the practice which is prevalent amongst butchers of selling interior " River Plate " and other mutton as '• New Zealand." Retail buyers, such as butchers, know the dif ference iv the quality of New Zealand, River Plato, or Australian mutton as well as the wholesale buyers, but it is not their policy to educate their custom ers to know as much as they do, especially when they can sell best New Zealand mutton as " English " and make a handsome profit out of it. I know a large butcher who notifies that he does not deal in anything bat English meat. One of his customers, who keeps a restaurant, told him he had had his attention called to New Zealand lamb and that be wished to give it a trial, asking the butcher if he could supply him with it. After tryiog to dissuade his client from using it, without, avail, however, the salesman at last consented to the proposal. Instead, however, of supplying the best New Zealand lamb, he procured the most inferior Anstralian lamb he could bny, avowedly with the intention of "choking" his customer off. Whether this had the desired effect and if the consumer was dissatisfied with the trial and returned to using " English Lamb !" I cannot say, but this no fable. It is a fact which I can prove. Now the question has often been asked " How can tbe Home Market be improved for New Zealand produce ?" My answer distinctly is:— By creating a demand among consumers all over the country, and by controlling tbe wholesale distribution. When this question has formerly been answered, as it often bas, and when schemes have been brought forward, in my opinion too much attention has been paid to wholesale distribution only. At present the wholesale distribution of N.Z. produce is iv the hands of numerous agents or their brokers, who handle besides produce from otber parts of tbe , world and whose interests are therefore completely divided. Thus we have Agents selling produce from New Zealand, River Plate, Australia, &c, at the same time. Now, allowing that the consignments from these various countries are handled by these agents to the best of tbeir ability, is it not natural to cod- , elude that no special effort will be made to push the produce of one Colony j against tbe others, tbe brokers being ] equally interested in tbem all. Yours faithfully, H. C. Cameron. The New Zealand Produce Stores Co., 95, Piccadilly, Manchester.