ENG-1962 — Page 151

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PRIMARY PRODUCTION

which provides for the appointment of a Director of Marketing (the Commissioner for Co-operative Development and Fisheries), who is made a corporation sole with power to acquire and dispose of property and use the assets of the organization for the develop- ment and encouragement of vegetable farming. It provides also for a marketing advisory board with the director as chairman and four other persons, nominated by the Governor, who have experi- ence and understanding of the difficulties and needs of farmers. The controls imposed by the ordinance, however, apply only to the New Territories and Kowloon area, for there is little vegetable cultivation on Hong Kong Island. The ordinance was amended during the year in the light of experience gained during the last 10 years.

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The organization has established depots in the main vegetable cultivation areas of the New Territories. From these depots, the majority of which are now operated by vegetable marketing co- operative societies, vegetables are collected daily by the organiza- tion's transport fleet and vehicles hired for the purpose, and taken to a large central wholesale market at Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon where three sales are held every day. The sales and all-money dealings involved are conducted by the organization. Reprovision- ing of the Kowloon wholesale vegetable market on a larger, re- claimed site in Cheung Sha Wan is now being planned. This also will be financed jointly by the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund and the organization. The organization works in many ways like its fish marketing counterpart. There are important differences, however, in the method of sale, which in the case of vegetables is by negotiation and not by auction, and in the measure of practical assistance given by the vegetable marketing co-operative societies which now handle over 75 per cent of local production. The reason for negotiating sales, instead of holding auctions, is that on a normal day some 20,000 separate lots may be sold to nearly 3,000 buyers. The number of lots rises to nearly 30,000 a day in the main season, making sales by auction impracticable.

Production during the year was satisfactory. There was a decrease of 15 per cent in the average annual wholesale price. A small quantity of imported vegetables passed through the organization's market at Yau Ma Tei, at a slightly lower average annual wholesale price compared with 1961. Figures are given in Appendix V. The