LITTLE BUSINESS IN OLD POTATOES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 182, 22 October 1927, Page 12

LITTLE BUSINESS IN OLD POTATOES

POSITION IN THE SOUTH (.Special to TIIE SUN.) CHRISTCHURCH. Friday. Little business is being done in potatoes, most people being content to lick wounds. The Wingatui, which sailed yesterday, carried 3,500 sacks from Lyttelton, with 850 sacks from Timaru. The Katoa will begin loading to-day, but follows so soon after the Wingatui that it is likely to carry but a light cargo. Shipments going to Auckland are sufficient to keep that market supplied without an advance in prices. Quotations today for prompt October delivery range from 80s to 85s, f.0.b., s.i., a ton. Against the opinion put forward that the partial failure of the Pukekohe crop from blight might prolong the Canterbury season, there comes a letter from an Auckland merchant seeking cancellation of October contracts. It seems probable that holders will have difficulty in disposing of stocks. A man in the potato trade said this week that he could get 300 tons of potatoes in an hour in the district of Canterbury. New season’s Auckland potatoes have now been on the market for some weeks. An increasing number of bags of new season’s local potatoes are also being dug in the bays around Christchurch every day, so it does not apppear that to-day’s truck price of 55s to 60s a ton for old tubers will be improved upon.