EMPIRE PRODUCE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 8

EMPIRE PRODUCE.

| MEAT AND FRUIT. EFFECT OF ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN. (rROM OUR OWB CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, December 28. The recent publicity given by the Empire Marketing Board and other organisations to foodstuffs produced within the British Empire had a marked effect upon the retail marketing in London and the country in tho days before Christmas. Very little poultry comes at any time from the Dominions or Colonies, but a growing trade has sprung up in eggs from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada. At this time of year Dominions frozen meat recedes rather than advances in public favour. The frozen beef of Australia and New Zealand is, this year at any' rate, pushed almost completely off the market by Argentine chilled beef, which is offered at a competitive price that is within the reach of tho poorest. Argentina is also sending an abundance of frozen pork, which reaps advantage from tho prohibition of Dutch and other Continental pork. The small quantity of New Zealand pork on the market hardly counts? The new season's mutton and lamb of New Zealand has not begun to arrive in time for Christmas, but in any case there is never much demand for sheep's flesh at this Benson.

South Africa recently concluded "a good season of citrus fruit, and is now turning its attention to peaches, apricots, pears, and grapes. A few small parcels arrived in time for the Christmas market, and-were eagerly bought. Canadian apples are still coming through in iine condition, and have a modifying effect upon apples from other sources. Fruit from the Empire. Mr Percy Hurd, M.P., has a useful letter in "The Times," inspired by attendance at several functions given in honour of guests from the Dominions. . "At the Inter-Empire banquet, with Mr Bruce as chief guest, thero was (says Mr Hurd) practical illustration of the Commonwealth Prime Minister's sage and just dictum that the British producer has first rights in the British market; the bread was all-British, and most palatable. Should we not do well at such gatherings to carry the idea further? There is no gayer scene in London just now than the shop windows which display home and Empire fruit in all its variety of kind and colour;

there is no prettier table decoration than a bowl of such fruit. Why not let our Empire luncheons and "banquets be so adorned with fruit instead of the flowers, probably foreign and sometimes tawdry, which were used at two Empire gatherings yesterday? Also, why not serve this luscious and'health-giving home and Empire product in place of the astonishing and indigestible medley called, I believe, 'American ice'? The Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr A. M. Samuel, sets a good example at these gatherings by demanding an Empire apple' after the meat' course, as our forefathers did. Let club and dinner secretaries and hotel managers tako his excellent cue, and so help the home producer, stimulate Empire trade, and encourage sound feeding and good digestion. We cannot, as things are, give tariff preference for home and Empire fresh fruit. But. we can do much to help.in other ways." Demand and Supply. The political correspondent of the "Daily Mail" writes: "When the Dominion Prime Ministers were recently discussing, in- London, the lines along which the Empire Marketing Board should work, in an endeavour to stimulate the sale of Empire goods by advertising and research, it was emphasised that the first essential was that there should bo adequate supplies of goods to meet tho new demand. "Already, in the case of one or two classes of goods, the fears which underlay this exhortation have proved well founded. The advertising campaign, although far front fully developed, has produced a demand in excess of supplies available at the moment, but it is hoped that the shortage will soon be made good."