Nz "Must Lower Prices To

Get More Fiji Trade"

If New Zealand manufacturers could strike special prices for their exports to Fiji, their goods could compete favourably with those from other markets, the Mayor of Suva (Councillor C. A. Stinson) said last month.

PEAKING at the opening of the 1 New Zealand Trade Missions’ splay in Suva, Fiji, Councillor inson said: “I have had it put to e on several occasions that if the lality of the article produced is of gh standard, then surely the local filiation would be prepared to meet e price.

“But from bitter experience I have arnt over many years of trading in ji that quality alone will not sell an tide. What is more important is e price at which it retails. ?‘Because by far the largest per ntage of the population of Fiji falls to the low-wage group, the price be unes all the more important.”

Councillor Stinson said that trade Itween Fiji and NZ was now worth >out £1,250,000 a year. The main iports and exports were foodstuffs, tie trade in manufactured goods was It large but could be developed.

Councillor Stinson said that recent Iks between the two countries had suited in an increase in Fiji’s banana iota, and he understood there was a al possibility that Fiji might export nber to NZ. ■That coupled with the news of a vision of the exchange rate on hich Fiji’s exports would be assessed •r duty in NZ was encouraging and dicated a willingness on the part NZ to encourage further trade with ji The leader of the NZ mission (Mr. . H. Stewart) said NZ had been town in the past as a country pro icing farm products, but its manu ctures had grown tremendously id it was now felt they could com :te with those of other countries in lality, price, service and delivery.

At an informal gathering at the lub Hotel arranged by the Suva hamber of Commerce to welcome ic mission, the chamber’s president Mr. Don Aidney) stressed the im- Jrtance of exporters studying the ants of the people in the Pacific lands.

Mr. Aidney said the mission would 6 of great value in enabling repre mtatives of many industries and tanufacturing processes to see exactly hat the Islands wanted.

For a lot of firms in NZ, exporting would be something new. They needed to be told what the require ments of the customers were and also be shown the correct documenta tion needed. It was very necessary that that should be done because nothing created more bad will than wrong documentation.

At a cocktail party given in Suva by the NZ mission, the NZ Minister of Internal Affairs and Island Terri tories (Mr. Leon Gotz), who was on his way home from the Cooks, said NZ was faced by a new concept of international trade and wanted two-way trade with Fiji. “Send us your products,” he said, “and we will find a market for them.”

Back in Auckland later in the week, Mr. Gotz said that although he had been impressed by the mission’s dis play in Suva, he felt the prices of NZ manufactured goods were a little too high for the highly competitive Pacific markets.

“It is quite obvious that NZ manu facturers will have to make special efforts to get their prices down,” he said.

Councillor C. A. Stinson.