FRUIT EXPORT TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 262, 5 November 1929, Page 4

FRUIT EXPORT TRADE.

LAST SEASON'S RESULTS. TRADE IN PROVINCES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON", October 4. The final figures for the New Zealand fruit export season of 1929 are not yet available owing to the fact that there is still some in cold storage.. With regard, however, to the business already done it is pleasant to have to record that the tentative figure which we reported last week—an average of 2/ per case higher than last year—has actually been exceeded. The average return per ease is 13/, a figure half-a-crown higher than was obtained last year, and this is the return for all the fruit sold in Britain and on the Continent, a very satisfactory result. The fruit in cold storage at Southampton will probably not do so well this vcar as that stored in 1928. This is partly due to some shipments from New Zealand arriving late, and thus competing with the New Zealand cold stored fruit, which was then being put on the market. The cold stored fruit also has not kept as well as usual.

It is a noteworthy fact that as far as business in Great Britain is concerned that the provincial markets did better than London, to which the bulk of the fruit was consigned. _ This lends support to the view that a policy of decentralisation is right. This command of better prices outside London also has been obtained this year when-the distribution was wider than ever before.

It is of interest in this connection to add that the fruit was distributed as follows among the larger ports:—Lindon. 430,470; Glasgow, 27,910; Bristol, 23,943; Liverpool, 18,274, and Birmingham, 13,783. The shipments for the year including about 30,000 cases still in cold storage amounted to 673,648 cases of apples, and 52,345 cases of pears.