POTATO MARKET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 December 1941, Page 8

POTATO MARKET

SUPPLIES STILL SHORT. NO IMMEDIATE RELIEF. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Till the new main crop of potatoes becomes available in February the New Zealand market will continue to be comparatively short, said the Minister of Marketing, Mr Barclay, yesterday. Meantime, he added, ’ every effort was being made to obtain increased supplies. The Internal Marketing Division had anticipated a shortage, said Mr Barclay, and had tried to obtain supplies from Australia. The position there had, however, been found to be much the same as in New Zealand. “The quality of the old season’s Australian potatoes, which were available in November, while quite satisfactory for prompt use, was not such as to warrant importation and holding to meet a shortage at the present time,” said Mr Barclay. “The Australian market has also been materially affected by increased requirements for the Army supplies, and this has accentuated the shortage in the transitionary period between the old and new crops. “Government requirements in New Zealand are now very considerable, and substantial relief to the local markets has been given by the importation from Australia, during the last three months, of 25,000 sacks of potatoes, which would otherwise have had to be obtained locally and which would have greatly accentuated the shortage that has existed.”