ENTERPRISE NEEDED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 260, 25 June 1932, Page 4

ENTERPRISE NEEDED

It has been evident for years that our system of marketing produce is imperfect. London has generally been considered the goal, and no one seems to have bothered about looking further afield for business. Plenty of excellent harbours exist on both coasts of Great Britain and facilities bave been offered for handling eargoes by tbe port authorities, but little enthusiasm bas been evinced in New Zea(!and where our boards have obviously been concerned more with prices and preferences than with a wider field t-o exploit. Reference to this question was made at Palmerston North by the Hon. R. Masters, who, as Minister of Industries and Commerce spoke at the National Dairy Show function. Tbe Minister was impressed with the possibilities of finding markets outside Great Britain, and mentioned that nearly 20 per cent. of the produce landed in London was re-export-ed to tbe Continent. Markets, he said, had to be developed in other places and the marketing end was one of the factors farmers had to take hold of if they wished to increase their exports to any material extent. This is true enough, and scope for expansion is not only in Great Britain or Europe. Already we have a market in Canada, and America is a possibility when arbitrary trade restrictions have been removed. But, at this moment there is awaiting trade in many of our leading lines in the East Indies, China and Japan. This business is only limited by the extent of ! our persuasion and propaganda, | and also, of course, by prices, for | the teeming millions of the Far East cannot be induced to appreciably increase their food bills. It may be saf ely accepted as a truth, that New Zealand's restricted trade is in no way attributable to any disinclination to purchase her produce. Mr. Masters is right in assuming that we have not been enterprising enough in the past, and that if we wish to succeed in competition we must adopt the efhcient methods of our competitors. Denmark has captured profitable markets because she has taken the trouble to study the requirei ment of potential customers. She ! gives them exactly what they want, and that is 'what New Zealand has been reluctant to do. It is essential that the tastes of different peoples should be investigated, and had these measures been taken years ago New Zealand would probably have been as securely established in the East as she is in Great Britain. If we cannot expect any substantial rise in prices, and this would seem too much to expect at present, at least we may increase our output, and with effective organisation there is tio reason why dairy produce should not be worth annually £40,000,000 or £50,000,000 to us on ruling prices, excluding that trade in bacon and other pork products which should bring to the national revenue, many millions additional every year. That is the objective on which we should set our eyes. It is useless to sit licking our wounds, reflecting on past glories and imagining vain things for the future. Prices may rise quite a lot in the course of time — that will be all the better. What we should study now is the question of how to make up for lower returns, and the only reply that seems logical is to carry our wares into other countries, making them acceptable to foreign tastes, and offering them on terms that will prove attractive. We are convinced that so long as New Zealand makes good butter and cheese, and does not indulge in any of the get-rich-quick practices she is sometimes prone to employ, she will have little difiiculty in selling it wherever civilisation is definitely established or has begun to throw out its tender shoots.