N.Z. HOMEY OVERSEAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1024, 15 July 1930, Page 9

N.Z. HOMEY OVERSEAS

SALES RATE MAY NOT BE

MAINTAINED WARNING TO PRODUCERS Doubt us to whether the present rut© of sales can bo maintained overseas owing to clifncult conditions was expressed in a report from the man-aging-director, Mr. J. Rent.oul, received at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Co-operative Honey roducers’ Association, Ltd., held ir the Chamber of Commerce this mornir. “Under these conditions we can insider ourselves successful if we can increase our sales at the present prices, and there is little hope of higher returns,’' stated the report. Optimism was not justified as the end of the present crisis was not yet in view. New Zealand’s position, however, was more hopeful than that of most others, as its honey had an established position and a goodwill no other had. It could a - ways get the largest portion of the trade offering, and the agents were a live firm, who could be relied on to get new business. NOT SUCCESSFUL YEAR Last season was not a successful one as far as either production or trading was concerned, and at the beginning of June there were 1,259 tons of honey in stock in London. The total sales for the first five months of this year were 80 tons short of that for the same period of 1929. This was largely due to the severity of the winter in Europe which, owing to all communications being cut off, caused orders valued at .€4,000 from Scandinavia to be cancelled. At the beginning of the year these supplies were held up in Denmark, but they have now been disposed of almost entirely. . The German market is almost entirely closed as the duty was doubled recently, and this has also made competition keener in England. Mr. Rentoul advises producers to concentrate on retail selling if the present return is to bo maintained. In the autumn experiments are to be made in certain densely populated districts to reduce packing costs by selling over the counter in pats cut from bu k on the premises, and in 6d pots. One Manchester firm *sells one hundredweight weekly in this way. Although the initial payment to be mad© to producers in New Zealand will b© one penny a pound less than formerly, Mr. Rentoul is confident that the final amount to be distributed will be equal to that of past seasons.