Vegetable Export Scope

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31633, 20 March 1968, Page 6

Vegetable Export Scope

There were excellent markets available overseas for a wide range of staple and luxury horticultural products, Professor B. P. Philpott, professor of agricultural economics and director of the Agricultural Economics Research Unit at Lincoln College, told the Canterbury section of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science on Monday.

“I think, or at least I hope, that these will become major export earners in the decade ahead, and in this I think Canterbury is going to be a most important area.’*

Professor Philpott said that in Britain there was a very noticeable trend in horticultural production away from the traditional multi-product market garden areas towards large-scale specialised production units. In the eastern countries it bad been natural to integrate economically large ■ scale mechanised production of main crops such as carrots, parsnips, cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts and celery.

The traditional market garden areas were turning to th-) more valuable, perishable and glass-dependent products such as salad crops, tomatoes, runner beans and rhubarb. Associated with the trend was specialisation in marketing. Many firms had large areas of vegetables grown on contract and used modern methods (including radiotelephones to maintain con-

tact with harvesting gangs and to control the rate of cutting) to keep dally supplies in line with demand.

Rapid development of largescale horticulture production was appropriate to the economic situation. Professor Philpott said there was a strong case for setting up a horticultural export development corporation which might, in the case of some of the staple exports like onions, take over the export marketing job. It could provide contacts, market guidance and market research for other products.

“Above all it could not, as a promotion agency to prod the horticultural industry into an awareness of its potential role as an important exporter, and to plan its development coherently,” he said.