GROWERS PROTEST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20057, 2 October 1939, Page 5

GROWERS PROTEST

CANTERBURY POTATOES

NO EXPLOITATION Canterbury potato-growers resent Dr. D. G. McMillan’s suggestion m the House of Representatives that they have been exploiting consumers by holding potatoes for a continuance ot high prices. They assert that several hundreds of tons still held by small farmers in Canterbury are being offered as they are required. While protesting against Dr. McMillan’s suggestion, growers reiterate their protest against the Government’s action in allowing potatoes to be imported this year, and again draw attention to the high prices of imported potatoes, compared with those for the local crop. The minimum price at auction for imported potatoes is reported to be 2,1 d a lb., equivalent to £2l a ton, and some of the potatoes were sold at 2.? d a lb., equivalent to £25 13s 4cl a ton. In Christchurch shops imported potatoes arc being sold at 4d a lb., equivalent to £37 (is 8d a ton. Canterbury growers say that the price for locally grown potatoes has never reached £2l a ton and is now about £l3, or 7s a sugar bag, which contains about half a hundredweight. Expenses, made up of B<Sd commission, 2id for the bag, and lcl for receiving, bring the return to the grower to 6s a sugar bag, or £l2 a ton. They contend that sufficient potatoes were grown in New Zealand this season to supply consumers until the new crop was on the market and that auction rooms are still adequately supplied with locally grown.