6 SEPTEMBER 1940, Page 5

In some London shops, at any rate, Victoria plums are

priced at tenpence a pound ; in a Kentish market forty-six pounds of selected Victorias are sold for eighteenpence. Again in Kent the average price for Czars has been eighteenpence per half- sieve, i.e., 28 lbs. Out of this eighteenpence the total charges for freightage, market-tolls, picking, &c., has amounted to an average of seventeenpence. This represents a profit for the grower of six shillings and eightpence per ton. Some weeks ago the Ministry of Food gave an undertaking to growers that processors would pay not less than £8 per ton. To the com- plaint of growers and the N.F.U. the Ministry have made the astonishing reply that such an undertaking was not necessarily binding. My informant vouches for the facts.