MARKETING OF EGGS.

Shannon News, 22 February 1927, Page 3

MARKETING OF EGGS.

more co-ordination is required. the export standard. <‘ If there is one thing more than another wanted for safe-guarding and buil-ding-up the poultry industry, it is more and better organisation than now exists,” said Mr F. C. Brown, Chief Poultry Instructor , lecturing at Levin. “It is the iveak link in the industry. A few years ago, I with others advocated Egg Circles. I looked to them as a stepping stone towards true co-opera-tion and to organise and centralise the marketing of the egg product. But I am disappointed with the result of what was advocated then, and with the Egg Circle movement- generally. Fortunate ly there are Egg Circles that continued and did good work, but they did not multiply to the extent and number that I thought they would. I thought then, and I think to-day, that they are the lifrht. thing to improve the marketing J the pcoduct and to bring about a better organisation It wfi,s not the system but the administration that was wrong. . In advocating them I said that the idea was not, to form a trust and make the public pay more for eggs than they were worth, but the great object was to .place in the hands of the consuming public a guaranteed article and to receive in return its true market value. We were to place cn the egg a stamp as a guarantee of good faith. The proposal was to work through an agent and let him sell on commission. Unfortunately, those piinciples have not been acted upon.” Mr Brown added that another respect. in which the circles had failed was that the agent had generally been “the boss of the whole show.” When the eggs reached the agent’s place, they were his; he could pay the current rate and probably take the eggs for pulping, for which he had a contract. That was not a very good line of organisation. . , 1 The lecturer also said that he had not advocated big cooperative concerns. The eggs should be sent to an agent to sell on commission, and every egg should be branded before going to the consumer; but to-day the eggs sent in crates were unbranded'and were of no greater market value than the farmers’ eggs or the doubtful ones. With the development that was taking place in the industry at present, there was a chance of a big surplus of eggs in the near future. The poultrymen might be able to get along ail right on the local market, where there was no competition; but, he asked, had they thought about a surplus, which might come at any time ? He did not see how it could be properly handled without better organisation than that now existing. Eggs were perishable goods, and they must either "be preserved, put into the cooler, or exported, or else the price must be reduced to one that would induce the consuming public to buy. It seemed to him that if they did not have better organisation, they were only encouraging the speculator to take over sheir export. The same thing might happen as in 1924, when there was a big surplus. In 1923, thanks to the grading, New Zealand eggs were received in London very favourably, mid they commanded the highest prices. In the following year the organisation said that it wanted to send the l|oz eggs. If these eggs were left in the Dominion somebody would lose money on the accumulated pulp, which in that year amounted to 375 tons. There had been plenty of time since then to breed flocks that would lay exportable eggs, and he would like to see a remit asking the Government not to allow any egg under 2cz. to be exported. It was a wonder that the Dominion did not lose its reputation by sending Home lfoz. eggs. Mr Brown quoted statistics to show how weight counts on the London market, He added that the whole existence of the industry, if it. was going to grow, depended on export and no egg was too good to be sent abroad.