MARKETING COSTS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 314, 30 August 1932, Page 7

MARKETING COSTS

CIIAMPER OF COMMERCE CONSIDERS REDUCTION IMPERATIVE. PREPARATION OF PRODUCE. Wellington, "vV ednesday. The necessity for reducing the costs of preparing our primary produce for marketing was stressed by the president of the Wellington Chamber of | Commerce, Mr. J. P. Luke, when commenting on the Ottawa agreements in the course of an address at a meeting of th'o chamber recently. It would be futile, Mr. Luke said, to comment in detail on the agreements which had been entered into, but it was evident that certain of our products would be granted preferences on the British marlcet. There would J undoubtedly he the nocessary quid : pro quo in relation to tariff schedulos j as applied to the importation of Bri- I tish goods entering this country. "Whilst the agreements made will undoubtedly be the means of increasing price levels," said Mr. Luke, "we must not overlook the fact that there is a still greater necessity for us to concentrate on the problem of reducing the costs of converting farm products into marketable commoditios. It does not seem to have been sufii- | ciently recognised that the primary . producers of New Zealand, or of any other country, are depending on the urban population for their markets. The fact that New Zealands' urban market is mainly in England is all the more reason for us to investigate quite dispassionately the position in which we as citizcns of New Zealand find ourselves to-day. "Legislative enactments for many years past have been based on the assumption that the farming community keeps the rest of the community, whereas the reverse is actually the case. It is trua that it is possible for every individual to obtain the bare necessities of life hy his own exertions from the cultivation of the soil, but it is a totally different problem when it hecomes necessary for the fanner I to apply to his undertaking the prin- | ciples which are applied to industi-ial j undertakings in urban areas. Notiiing which is grown on the soil or even obtained from the soil can be converted into produce, either for liuman consumption or utilisation, without the interposition of proeess operations. For instance, our principal commodities of hutter, cheese, and meat cannot be marketed until they are so processed. "There can be no doubt that the fostering of our primary production is not only wise but essential to the well-heing of the community, and that that is recognised is evidenced by the fact that everyone contributes to the maintenance of a very highly technical Agricultural Department of State. The facilities which are afforded by this department are at the disposal of every section of the farming community, and have given a very great impetus not only to the production but to the final manufacture of such commodities, and the marketing of such commodities has also been greatly facilitated hy the.sp'ecial provisions afforded hy other Government departments. Paying the Higher Priccs. "The ability to pay the enhanced prices which will result as a consequence of the agreements just recently entered into," said the president, "will depend on the opportunity which the industrial section of the British community has to lift its price levels. This can only he achieved hy the return of more prosperous trading conditions, and it is obvious that the demand on British manufacture by. the world at large will be the deciding factor. "The British people will require, and rightly so, that whilst they are prepared to assist this Dominion with respect to the purchase of her produce, the conditions pertaining to the standard of life in New Zealand shall at least approximate those of Great Britain. This leads us to the consideration of the only factor over which we as a people have any control. Purehase price levels for our commodities are in the hands of those, whether in Great Britain or elsewhere, who are the purchasers and consumers of our products; on the other hand, the cost of not only producing hut placing these commodities on the consuming markets is entirely a matter for ourselves,"