Canadian Fruitgrowers Look At Industry In N.Z.

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28222, 9 March 1957, Page 2

Canadian Fruitgrowers Look At Industry In N.Z.

The handling of apples in bulk 1 bins is one aspect of the fruitgrowing industry in New Zealand that has particularly impressed Mr Vernon L. Ellison, a Canadian fruitgrower who has just completed a tour of this country examining the organisation of the industry. Mr Ellison said he would take this idea back to the Okanagen Valley, British Columbia, where a growers’ packing co-opcrative, of which he is a member, may install 60,000 such bins in a new plant. This plant would take 500.000 feet of timber and involve the expenditure of 75.000 dollars.

Mr Ellison is one of a party of four Canadian men connected with the Canadian fruit industry for whom a New Zealand itinerary was arranged by the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation. The other members of the party are Mr D. J. Sutherland, a fruitgrower, Mr S. W. Porritt. of the Summerland experimental station, controlled by the Canadian Government, and Mr W. F. Morton, a horticulturist employed by the Government of British Columbia. All members of the party are from the Okanagen valley, the leading fruitgrowing area in Canada, which is 250 miles from Vancouver. ‘‘This valley grows apricots.

peaches, and cherries, but it specialises in, and is famous for. its apples,” said Mr Ellison. He himself was a member of a growers’ packing co-operative of 350 members, which had packed 880.000 bushel cases of apples in 1950. The staple variety of apple grown was the Mackintosh Red, an autumn-ripening apple, juicy and of high flavour, which was suitable both as a dessert and cooking apple. Mr Ellison has sampled the Gravenstein and Cox’s Orange varieties, which are not grown commercially in Canada, and is impressed with their quality and flavour.

He was also impressed with the small, easily-harvested trees in New Zealand orchards, said Mr Ellison. They were smaller than those in Canada. A member of his party was most interested in the new cool stores built by the New Zealand Apple and Pear Board at Henderson and Motueka. and considered that they were better than anything in Canada and the United States, Mr Ellison said. Carton Packing Asked about Canadian methods of packing apples, Mr Ellison said that the great distances of markets from the Okanagen valley ; made growers’ packing co-opera-j lives necessary. Vancouver was 250 miles distant from the valley, Calgary 600 miles, and Winnipeg 1500 miles. A high standard of packing was essential to compete with fruit sent from the United States. Packers were now abandoning the old wooden bushel case in favour of a cardboard carton, in which the apples were contained very much like eggs in an egg crate. The outside of the cartons were attractively printed in colour, advertising the product. This new method of packing apples was most popular. Although Canada's apple production was about double that of New Zealand, she exported only half the quantity to the United Kingdom that New Zealand did. said Mr Ellison. “This is because of restricted dollar allocation by Britain.” he said. “What we cannot export or sell on the Canadian and United States market we are processing—making either apple juice, dried apples, or canned apples.” . There was no organisation which looked after the interests of the Canadian fruitgrowers as a whole in Canada as there was in New Zealand, said Mr Ellison. He was impressed with the efficiency and complete organisation of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation in looking after the interests of the whole pip-fruit industry in this country. Besides apple growing, Mr Ellison is keenly interested in trout fishing. An enthusiastic fly fisherman. he hopes to sample selfcaught Canterbury trout before his party leaves for Melbourne tomorrow.

Health Service Cost. — Britain's National Health Service, nine years old next July,, is now used by 97 per cent, of the population, and its cost amounts to about 3| per cent, of the total national resources, a Government pamphlet said yesterday.—London, March 7.