TO AID EGG EXPORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 426, 7 August 1928, Page 16

TO AID EGG EXPORT

GOVERNMENT GUARANTEE TO BE GIVEN

LANGUISHING INDUSTRY Press Association. WELLINGTON, Monday. The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. O. J. Hawken, announced this evening that the Govrenment has decided to give a guarantee on the basis of £3 5s gross a case of 30 dozen eggs on the London market. In announcing the decision, Mr. Hawken said: “For some time past there have been warnings that the poultry-keeping industry was reaching a stage at which there would have been an over-supply of eggs on the New Zealand market, and it has been evident that unless the poultry-keepers could find other markets, the industry would very shortly languish, and fall back to the point at which the local market requirements would be the limit of production. I may say that this industry is of much more value than is generally supposed, the annual production being valued at £3,000,000. It is essentially one to be carried on by small holders, who, of all the producers in a country like New Zealand, should be helped. “As its future success undoubtedly depends on the volume of export that can be attained, and on the assurance of a regular demand overseas, the Government has decided on a guarantee as the most practical kind of assistance that it could give. Conditions have been drawn up which will have to be observed by producers who desire to avail themselves of the guarantee. These conditions will contain provisions ensuring that only eggs of the best quality and of standard size will be exported, and all care will be taken by Government officers to see that the conditions are adhered to. Every opportunity will be given for export business to establish itself on a basis which will gain the confidence of the buyers overseas. “There is no reason at all why the New Zealand poultry-keepers should not be able to compete on the London market with those of other countries at the price that has been realised there for eggs offered at the period when the New Zealand eggs would reach the market. The Government hopes that the fillip which the guarantee will impart to the industry will give the poul-try-keeper in the Dominion confidence to extend his operations, and increase the production of eggs and poultry to proportions which have not hitherto existed.” __