TRADE IN PRODUCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 950, 17 April 1930, Page 13

TRADE IN PRODUCE

ONIONS STILL CHEAP TASMANIAN CHAFF ARRIVES The Sun Office, 9 a.m. A temporary slight shortage of spot potatoes has been the principal feature in Auckland grain, seed and produce circles over the week. The only Southern boat to arrive this week brought a limited consignment of potatoes, necessitating drawing on reserves. The result has been a slight hardening in the price, particularly between merchants. A fairly.heavy shipment is due on Tuesday' next, and this should ease the position. Regular arrivals from the South can be looked for from next week, with the price holding on levels which should allow Auckland merchants through store quotations to hold around £7 5s to £7 10s a ton for some time. The position in the South gives rise to the hope that there will be plenty of cheap potatoes in the near future. The quality' is also improving as the season advances. Onions continue in over-supply with prices well under costs of production. The quality, generally, is fair, but few merchants are prepared to handle more than sufficient to carry them on from clay to day. Pukekohe onions sell f.o.r. to storekeepers at £ 4 10s a ton, through store, Auckland, merchants ask around 5s Gd a cwt. » The market for oats holds very firm at unchanged prices. B Gartons sell through Auckland stores at 4s lOd a bushql; A’s make 4s lid a bushel. Reports from the South indicate that the market for wheat is largely in the hands of the Pool; the market is very firm with a rising tendency. Through store, Auckland, merchants ask 7s lOd a bushel. Little activity is shown in the maize market and spot quotations are unchanged at 6s lOd a bushel through store. A fairly substantial shipment of chaff arrived during the week from Tasmania to sell ex the ship at £ 9 10s a ton. Ex store the imported product is now selling at £lO a ton in New Zealand sacks, and at 7s 6d a ton less packed in hessians. The position in regard to bran and pollard is unchanged. The Australian price for pollard is still too high to attract wholesale importations from across the Tasman. Australian sells through Auckland stores at the moment at £lO a ton; bran sells at £ 9 a ton.