Fiji Is Trying To Grow
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
Potatoes
FIJI now has two other wartime acquisitions—a black market and a potato shortage.
The price of potatoes in Suva appar ently has been fixed at threepence per pound, but local residents continue to pay from 4td. to 6d. per pound.
The “Fiji Times” reports that a grower in Sigatoka has been offered £3O per ton by a retailer —and it is obvious that the retailer —who must also pay freight from Sigatoka to Suva—does not intend to re tail them at 3d. per pound (that is, at a loss). The “Times” urges a stricter con trol on potatoes in order that the public may get them at a more reasonable price; but also remarks on the interesting ex periment that Mr. D. B. Costello has made with New Zealand seed potatoes at Sigatoka. Hitherto, it was thought that New Zealand potatoes would not grow; but Mr. Costello has a good crop on the way to maturity, which he intends to sell at regulation prices. When these potatoes are harvested it should relieve the present potato position in Fiji.