ONION MARKETING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 65, 3 April 1937, Page 6

ONION MARKETING

- Prpo® Asgonisition.)

Recent Regulations Rouse Opposition "TRADE HAMPERED"

Poloornph ■

OBuEtlSTCHUBCH, 1/ ast JNlgnt, Because the recent marketing regula-i jtions are said to have hampered tradei tto a point of total restriction, Canterjbury's onion crop is scarcely touched by jmerchants. To-day growers from all. I parts of the provinee conferred with jrepresentatives pf the merchants and drafted suggested amendments to the regulations and these they are urging ' jthe Government to adopt, In particular j growers and merchants alike seek the lifting of the 7i per cent. restriction .on .merchants' profits and the abolition of the clause permitting growers to con,sign their crops. "Recent regulations governing the i marketing of this year's onion crop eeem to. have found very little favour with growers," said a statement issued after to-day 's fieeting. "Growers are ,of the opinion that marketing has never been in a more hopeless condition. The .regulations are regaTded as having made it impossible for merchants to deal in onions as the 7i per cent. commission allowed them is insufficient" to cover the cost of- marketing ope"rations. The grades fixed for onions are considered to be based on insufficient knowledge of the onion crop and the regulations on the Whole are xoundly condemned as being irritatipg without being of any benefit to growers who do not know what .to do with their crops. Growers do not think there is any chance of merchants purchasing (their onions in any quantity under the present circumstances as they canno't be jexpected to deal in a commodity that is going to place them on the wrong side of the ledger. The opinion of ■growers is that the regulations, with the exception of one or two clauses, Ishould be wiped out and & minimum jprice of £5 5s a ton fixed for £. a.q. j onions." : After the meeting, Mr H. S. S. Kyle, [M.P., sent a telegram to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Hon. D. G. :Sullivan, who announced the regula■tions, stating that there was much dis■satisfaction among the growers and suggesting that the existing regulations be xancelled and proposed amendments gazetted immediately. In teply, Mr Kyle received a telegram' from Mr Sullivan stating that the regu-' ilations were not in his sphere and that |he Was referring the message to the jMinister of Agriculture, Hon. Lee Martin.