TABLE POTATOES CHEAP.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1917, Page 4

TABLE POTATOES CHEAP.

SEED POTATOES DEAR.

WHY ? ‘ A leading merchant in Dunedin, interviewed to-day, supplies facts which are ih the direction of a reply to this question. The quality of the table potatoes this year is exceptionally fine. It is the best crop tor,years. And there seems to have been a very generous yield in all districts excepting North Otago. At the present moment, so far as dealers can see, the supply is much in excess of the demand. The market opened at ios to £6 per ton for good potatoes in Dunedin, and it came down and down, until there was a drop of fully £i per ton. Stocks are accumulating. In spite of the fact that potatoes are absolutely the cheapest food on the market, the price considerably below normal, there seems to be no increased consumption. Dow prices also prevail throughout the North Island. Merchants are now quoting'for Northern orders as low as £4 per ton free on board at Dyttelton. Even at that figure there appears to be no anxiety to buy in the Northern centres. It is impossible to say whether the bottom has been, touched, and dealers are exceedingly shy in operating, owing to the difficulty in getting coastal freights.

Thus it comes about that in Dune din we are practically reduced to supplying tlie local market, and it seems likely that the price will keep low for the rest of the season. Current wholesale rates are equivalent to 9s 6d to ios per bag. Another factor in the situation, further tending to make potatoes cheap, is that so many of the croppers are called up or expect to be called up for military service. They are rushing the potatoes out of the ground and on the market, and thus forcing the position. If you ask me for the reason why the demand is so shy, I frankly tell you I cannot make it out. It seems to me extraordinary that people will buy dear meat and dear butter and pass over potatoes which are of excellent quality and absurdly cheap. It looks as if there was no attempt at economy.

As to seed potatoes, that is quite another matter. The season has been so favorable that the proportion of small potatoes suitable for seed was exceptionally low this year—much below normal—with the result that good seed potatoes are exceedingly scarce. Seed Up-to-Dates, which are the main line, are easily worth about £y to £7 ios a ton in Dunedin—-about £2 per ton above normal rates. That is the wholesale price, and as the retailer had to throw out many and pick them over by hand once and perhaps twice, I should say that half a crowm a stone is not unreasonable. In earlies the seed supply also seems to be shorter than usual.