PRICE OF ORANGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1939, Page 3

PRICE OF ORANGES

ATTITUDE OF RETAILERS. GOVERNMENT RATES TOO DEAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Wellington retail fruiterers decided at a meeting yesterday not to sell oranges at prices fixedly the Government till representations have been made to the Minister of Marketing, Mr Nash. The following statement was issued after the meeting. “The ground for our action is that the sale of oranges will definitely be curtailed. The prices at which oranges are being sold in most shops are lower than those fixed by the Government, as is shown by the following comparison: 126's, shop price, four for Is (Government price, 3s 2d a dozen); 15O's-176's. five for Is (150’s, 2s lOd. 176’s, 2s 6d); 200’s-216’s, six foils (200's, 2s 4d, 216’s, 2s 2d); 252’5-288’s, eight for Is (252’5, Is lOd, 288’s, Is 7d. “The principle of fixing prices for such a perishable commodity is, in our opinion, completely unworkable, because so much depends on quality and the amount of handling and storage. A minimum supply for 14 days must be carried by the retailer, which means in some cases considerable depreciation in the fruit, because it is not delivered to us on arrival in New Zealand, but in greater or lesser quantity is held in cool or other stores.”