Who Gets the Profit?
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
Fiji Bananas in NZ
“11/'HO gets the profit?” asks the Fiji TT “Times,” in an article on the price which Fiji bananas are bringing in New Zealand.
The Fijian grower receives 4 - per case —after a year of hard work and culti vation; the middleman supplies the case, repacks and ships the fruit to the New Zealand Government at 10 4 a case on the wharf at Suva. The landed cost in Auckland, it is estimated, should not be more than 17 6.
So much for the Fiji end of the story.
In New Zealand, the bananas are re packed in somewhat smaller cases, are distributed to the retailers and are eventually bought by the public at a fixed price of 7d. per pound. Worked out on a basis of the 90-100 lb. case, which leaves Fiji, this means that the case for which the grower in Fiji received 4 - and the middleman 10 4 from the New Zealand Government, actually brings from £2/15/to £2 18 - from the New Zealand public.
The NZ ; Government is a Socialist Govern ment, pledged to destroy all profiteers.
The “Times” might well ask who gets this enormous margin of profit—or why NZ handling charges should eat up about £2 per case. But it is a debatable point as to who has the greater grievance—the Fiji grower, or the New Zealand con sumer.
Maybe there IS a war on—but this per formance by the NZ Government still does not appear to make sense.