ORANGES & LEMONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1942, Page 2

ORANGES & LEMONS

MASTERTON RETAIL PRICES IN EXCESS OF FIXED RATES. STATEMENT BY MR ROBERTSON. Attention to the high prices at which oranges and lemons are being sold in Masterton is drawn by Mr J. Robertson, M.P. “No oranges which arrived by the last shipment from the islands and which are now on the market in Masterton,- ’ said Mr Robertson, “should be selling at a higher price than 3d each. That price is for the largest size orange and no one should pay any more than that price. The retailers are allowed at least Id profit at that figure.” Mr Robertson went on to state that the largest size oranges, of a count of 126 to the case, sold in the market at 19s 6d a case. Plus 6d commission to the buyer and another Is for freight, the cost to the Masterton retailer’ was 21s for a case for this count, which was exactly 2d for each orange. With some shipments, it might be said there was wastage but that was not the case with the last shipment and practically all the oranges in it were in good condition. The market price of the size most commonly sold in the shops, 150 count, was 22s 6d, which cost the Masterton retailers 24s a case. That worked out at just under 2d each. Yesterday, said Mr Robertson, as high as 6d was paid in Masterton for oranges of 150 count. The retail prices fixed by the Marketing Department were 2s 8d a dozen for 126 count (the largest size), 2s 7d a dozen for 150 count, 2s 4d a dozen for 176 count and about Is 9d a dozen for 250 count. A slight rise was allowable in Masterton on those .prices to meet the commission and freight charges, amounting to Is 6d a case. Referring to lemons, Mr Robertson said the best fancy grade, of 90 count, sold at the market at 13s 6d a case and cost the Masterton retailer 15s, and these should not cost the retailer more than 2d each. The commercial grade, 90 count, cost local retailers 13s 3d a case, which was about 1 2-3 d. each and these, he said, had been sold in Masterton up to 8d each. The principle involved in the Marketing Department’s price-fixation policy, said Mr Robertson, was that should there be any shortage of imported food on the market, the prices, nevertheless, should not be raised to famine level. The department was faced with difficulties in enforcing observance of the prices fixed, one being a shortage of labour, in common with every kind of employer. It was therefore the duty, 'said Mr Robertson, of everyone to assist in seeing that this type of exploitation should not be allowed to prevail. “My own view,” he said, “is that those who abuse the situation should have supplies cut off.”