SUPPLY OF ONIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 July 1939, Page 6

SUPPLY OF ONIONS

POSITION AS TO IMPORTS FROM JAPAN. EXPLANATION BY DIRECTOR OF MARKETING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. The necessity for the importation of onions this year to ensure adequate supplies for consumers was explained by the Director of Internal Marketing in a statement. He said that even the best quality New Zealand onions would not keep right through the year and it was essential to import onions at this time to meet the demand. Local supplies usually last until July or August and there is a gap between the end of the New Zealand season and the be ginning of the supply from Canada and California, from which countries the bulk of New Zealand imports are drawn. On account .of drought and huge bush fires in Australia in the early part of the year, the Victorian onion crop, which generally is a big one was almost a complete failure and shipments were made from New Zealand to help meet the Australian shortage. Many months ago. long before there was any tension between Japan and Great Britain, the Marketing Division made arrangements to import a small quantity of Japanese onions, which were the only suitable supply available at the right period. The position was that New Zealand had entered into a contract and he was sure the average New Zealand citizen would not wish this country to be a party to a breach of any contract entered into in good faith unless with the approval of both parties. It therefore was particularly desirable that wholesalers, retailers and consumers should not take up the illogical position of refusing to handle these onions while they were at the same time selling or using many household articles produced in Japan.