PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
of outstanding merit. At present over 1,300 fishermen's children are receiving education and $50,000 was spent for this purpose in 1954. A two months' adult reading class was also held in Cheung Chau and was attended by 70 fishermen.
Vegetable Marketing Organization. The Vegetable Marketing Organization was established by Government in September, 1946, to control the wholesale marketing of vegetables produced in, or imported into, the New Territories.
The difficulties with which the local farmer is faced when marketing his produce are considerable. The central Wholesale Vegetable Market is situated many miles from the actual areas of production and for this reason the farmer's biggest problem is transporting his produce to market. The Organization has solved this problem for the farmer by setting up a number of Farmers' Collecting Centres at strategic points throughout the New Territories from which vegetables are collected and conveyed to market in the Organiza- tion's own transport. The whole marketing procedure, from the collection at a centre to the return of the proceeds of the sale (less a 10% commission for services) to the collecting centres for distribution to the farmers is handled by the Organization's staff. Many of the Farmers' Collecting Centres have been converted into Farmers' Co-operative Societies operated by the farmers themselves.
The facilities provided by the Organization together with the assistance extended to farmers in the form of education, loans and the supply of cheap fertilizer, have certainly been a powerful incentive to the vegetable farmers and have resulted in greatly increased produc-
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