CONTRACT SYSTEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1943, Page 4

CONTRACT SYSTEM

APPLIED TO PRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES WITH SALES RY GRADE & WEIGHT. WITH AUCTION SELLING ELIMINATED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Government has advised producers, wholesalers and retailers that it has decided to adopt a contract system of growing vegetables, the objective being to obtain price stability. There will also be introduced defined grading standards for vegetables and arrangements for their retail sale according to grade. It is realised that the new system will fundamentally affect the operations of produce auctioneers, because the auctioning method of selling vegetables virtually will be eliminated, and Government representatives have asked auctioneers in the main centres to form a unified distributing system, so that individual firms will, in effect, act as one coordinated receiving and distributing unit for the handling of vegetables during the emergency period.

The system will mean that the grower will agree to grow a certain area of basic vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, swedes and cabbage, and the grower will receive a fixed contract price, irrespective of the market position. Retailers have been advised that basic vegetables will be subject to price orders and that all basic vegetables are to be sold by weight, which is a major departure in the case of cabbages.