ENG-1961 — Page 140

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PRIMARY PRODUCTION

wholesale price. A decreased quantity of imported vegetables passed through the Organization's market at Yau Ma Tei, at a slightly increased average annual wholesale price than in 1960. Figures are given in Appendix V.

The Organization is self-supporting and the costs of the services provided are met from a 10% commission charged on sales. Thirty per cent of this commission is refunded to the Marketing Co- operative Societies in recognition of the marketing responsibilities they assume in respect of their own produce. The Organization is non-profit-making and any financial surpluses are ploughed back into the industry in the form of improved services and other bene- fits. One example is the aid which the Organization has given to farmers in overcoming their main problem of recent years, the lack of a cheap fertilizer, through a scheme for the maturation and distribution of nightsoil at a low price.

Cheap credit is a further important service of the Organization. Farmers may obtain loans through the Commissioner from the Vegetable Marketing Organization Loan Fund. Since the establish- ment of this Fund farmers have received from it 565 loans totalling $2,437,162.

It is Government policy that the Organization should eventually be run by the farmers themselves as a co-operative enterprise. The salesmen of individual Vegetable Marketing Co-operative Societies have been authorized under the Agricultural Products (Marketing) Ordinance as market salesmen, and negotiations with the Federa- tion of Vegetable Marketing Co-operative Societies were begun with a view to the Federation! taking over that part of the sales floor occupied by its member Societies.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

A Registrar of Co-operative Societies was appointed in 1950, and the combined Co-operative and Marketing Department, now part of the Co-operative Development and Fisheries Department, came into being later in the same year. Since then, the co-operative movement has made rapid progress and is being accepted by a growing number of people, particularly farmers and fishermen, as a sound and democratic way of improving their lot. While the main weight of effort was directed at first towards the physical forma- tion of societies and towards ensuring that they were sound in