CITRUS FRUITS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1940, Page 6

CITRUS FRUITS.

EFFECTS OF STATE CONTROL

(To the Editor.)

The very excellent leader published in Tnet-day's "Star"* concerning Government ha lulling of oranges and lemons should once again serve to illustrate the many difficulties which heset the State control of any commodity. The lemon scheme, which wa« inaugurated less than a year ago. was officially announced in the Press of April 20 last a* follows: «\

standardised proress will be adopted in the sheds, aiming; at tnrning wit a product of uniformly high quality. The lemons received from the growers will l>e sorted into three grades and packed into a measuring case, which will contain three-quarters of a bushel allowing for the shrinkage involved in curing. The fruit will then be uniformly coloured and will next pass through a, machine which sterilises and washes the skins. The drying and curing process will follow, and after sorting the fruit will be packed in readiness, for marketing. The cost to the public will be 1/ a dozen."' This all sounded very wonderful at the iime. but actually there has l>een a very marked decline in the article produced and the service provided, ljcmons bought 10-day show Hi to 20 per cent waste when unpacked on the day purchased, rising in some cases to over ">0 per cent when left for a week, and it is necessary to bny & week ahead because supplies are often p.o erratic. Yet the Marketing Division is using similar lemons, which are cured (I use this word guardedly) with, the same plant and in the Hune premises as were used by private enterprise and yet before control had lemons were a rarity, even two and three weeks after purchase. To-day. too, an unsatisfactory position exists with oranges; we are not allowed to know the foil reason for the lack of mipplies. bnt we do know that the one ease of Jamaican oranges a fortnight, which lately haft been the retailer's portion, ha* contained anything from 20 to 50 per cent of waste, whereas it has always been understood that orange* showing over 71 per cent waste are to be repacked l»efore sale. The Marketing Division continues, by its unbusinesslike methods, to lose the goodwill of the. retail fruiterer and has lately added insult to injury by issuing regulations which compel him to spend much time in writing new-fangled tickets for his oranges and lemons, tickets which not 1 per cent of his customers understand. but I can assure yon that they would understand and appreciate adequate supplies of reasonably-priced fruit, which we were given to understand would result from the institution of State control. FAIR PLAY.