FARMERS & CONSUMERS Tommy /rvm, Commissioner Georgia Deparfmenf of Agriculture Market Bulletin Volume 62 FOR SUBSCRIPTION AND ADVERTISEMENT INFORMATION SEE PAGE 2 Wednesday, April 21, 1976 Oil Retailers Caught In Bind VALUE OF GEORGIA AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS FISCAL YEAR 1970 - 1975 Most gasoline retailers operate on year to year property lease agreements. The landlord is also the supplier of gasoline. As a condition to getting the lease the retailers must enter supply agreements simultaneously. The retailers are therefore lock- ed-in to purchase gasoline from the j landlord-supplier. (They must pay whatever whole- sale price is char- j ged. There is no ! opportunity to "shop" for a bet- ter price. Absent normal business rights to r" seek out the best price for gasoline for the consumers' benefit, the retailers are dependent upon the suppliers' "good faith" not to do anything that will interfere with or undermine the ability to com- pete in the marketplace. The landlord-supplier very carefully places "suggestions" or (Our guest columnist this week is Jack W. Houston, Executive Director, Georgia Association of Petroleum Retailers, Inc., P. 0. Box 639, Decotur, 30031.)________ "demands" to retailers during day to day contracts. The retailers risk the loss of the right to occupy the station premises if they refuse to follow the suggestions even if the suggestions are detrimental to economic survival. It is the unfair take-away of a business, especially after years of long and hard work, that must be stopped. Hundreds of gasoline retailers in Georgia have lost the rights to occupy station properties for no "good cause." The guilty landlord-suppliers are enjoying the fruits of the hard labors of retailers eliminated in this fashion. The latest and most serious unfair practice ever faced by a gasoline retailer (or any other small businessman) compells legislative relief. The landlord-suppliers are selling gasoline at retail at prices they charge their own retailers for gasoline at wholesale-thus sacrificing the profit at retail to destroy retailers in competition with them. The very survival of competition based on efficiency and service (Continued On Page 12) New OSHA Safety Standards Require Employee Instruction The OSHA Machine Guarding Standard for Agriculture requires that you "instruct every employee in the state operation and servicing of all equipment [farm, farmstead and gin machines] with which the employee is or will be involved at the time of initial assignment and at least annually thereafter.'1 Limousin Breeders Hold Special Sale The 'Southeastern Limousin Breeders Association will hold a Limousin sale on April 24th, at 1 P.M. at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds (located. 2 miles east of Lawrenceville off Georgia Hwy. 20). Signs will be posted. Sale Headquarters will be at Sheraton North Lake 1-285 and LaVista Rd., Tucker. Sale Chairman is W. C. "Jimmy" Tinsley, P. O. Box 150 Lafayette, Ala., phone 205-864-2241. This quality offering features consignments from breeders in all seven states of the Southeastern Limousin Breeders Association. A special Southeastern membership meeting and breakfast, 8 A.M. April 24 at the Sheraton. For the tractor: Make sure that your employees understand that the master shield over the power take-off shaft must be in place whenever the power take-off drive is in operation. If the master PTO shield has been (This is the second part of an article prepared especially for the MARKET BULLETIN by Cecil Hammond, Extension Engineer, Cooperative Extension Service, UGA, Athens.)__________________ removed from the tractor for installation of mounted implements, a PTO stub shaft guard, usually in the form of a tubular cover or cap, must be installed. On some older tractors, the tractor's master shield is the point of attachment of the older type tunnel shields. For the PTO-operated (Continued On Page 12) Number 16 Georgia Export Market Growing For All Products The primary function of the Georgia Department of Agriculture's international trade effort has been aiding all segments of Georgia's food and agricultural industry in finding and expanding foreign markets for their products. Georgia's agricultural exports grew a record 280 per cent during the five-year period between 1970 and 1975. Georgia leads the nation in exports of peanuts; ranks second in poultry, poultry products and pecans; is fifth in unmanufactured tobacco; and is tenth in cotton and cottonseed oil. Georgia also exports substantial quantities of feed-grains, soybeans, protein meal, hides and skins, lard and tallow, frozen and canned fruits, vegetables and meats. The export activities are aligned closely with those of the Foreign Agricultural Service and efforts are extended world-wide via agricultural attaches and personnel located in key overseas markets. V.ilnr Al! I'.irm I'nj