EGGS FROM CALIFORNIA.

Shannon News, 7 April 1922, Page 3

EGGS FROM CALIFORNIA.

BIG CARGOES COMING TO DOMINION.

Poultrymen are experiencing some perturbation over the ominous intimation that a big shipment of Californian eggs is being shipped at San Francisco for export to New Zealand at a price that threatens seriously to undercut the rates for the home produced eggs. Already leading grocers have received the following circulars from a city firm:— “We are booking orders for Californian fresh eggs, for shipment at San Francisco per Tahiti next month, in cold storage. Price 31 cents per do:-:., c.i.f., Wellington. Packed in cases of 30 dozen. Terms, letter of credit.” Mr J. W. Thompson, secretary of the Levin Poultrykeepers’ Association was in touch this morning by ; telephone with a member of the executive of the Dominion body, but was informed that the present was the worst time at which to invoke legislative aid to prevent dumping of this sort. There was one obvious retort, and that was that the New Zealand supply could not at the moment adequately meet the demand. Later on, when the pullets got into their stride and the older birds were laying, would be a much better time. Then the poultrymen would have a case, and a good one, too, to lay before the Prime Minister. Mr Thompson went on to explain that when the supply was at the peak or thereabouts, poultrymen had/ all they could do to make ends meet. They were noti allowed to import cheaper fowl food from abroad owing to the embargo, and if they had to compete in a market swamped with the much cheaper produced American eggs, the industry in New Zealand would be seriously crippled. The importation of Asiatic pulp was bad enough. If the Government was going to permit not only the importation of pulp in the summer but also eggs in the winter, it would have to abrogate the embargo or vice versa. One thing or the other would have to be done if the industry was to be preserved in New Zealand, let alone fostered.