APPLES AND PEARS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 249, 18 July 1942, Page 10

APPLES AND PEARS

Limitation On Varieties Advocated

UTILIZATION OF REJECTS

Fruitgrowers and others interested in the marketing of fruit declare that, the new War Administration can bring about considerable savings in labour, petrol, tyres, and case timber if it will take immediate action toward the rehabilitation of the fruit industry by eliminating from the fresh fruit market scores of unwanted varieties of apples and pears. A Hawke’s, Bay fruitgrower stated yesterday that in tlie season just ended growers pushed an amazing selection of apples on to the Internal Marketing Division—over 150 different kinds. Fully half that number, he added, was in small lots, ranging less than 10 cases up to about 100 cases. Actually, the requirements of the public would be fully’ met if the fresh fruit market were restricted to, say, 20 varieties of mid-season apples, plus half a dozen early varieties. Likewise, pears which were marketed in 65 varieties, mostly almost unheard of, could be limited to a dozen varieties. Estimates of the quantity of unwanted apples range from 500,000 to 750,000 bushel cases. It is argued that none of that fruit need be -grown, graded and packed, that valuable manpower, materials and transport are needlessly expended ou it, and that if it were eliminated from the fresh fruit market the Internal Marketing Division would be able to, supply’ fruit to the public without increasing the price aud without the loss now incurred to the State in “pushing it down people’s throats.” Manufacture Of By-Products.

Several practical ways of dealing with the “unwanted” apples were stated to be open to orchardists. “It should be possible- —it is certainly desirable for the sake of the industry after the war when the Government will have abandoned it to its own resources —to make an immediate start in changing over by grafting from unwanted varieties to wanted varieties, said the grower. “Without some sort of compensation, however, tills might have to be on a voluntary basis, and therefore would be too slow. For the same reason, the cutting down of the trees would not commend itself to many people. The alternative is a really statesmanlike decision by the War Administration or the Government that the unwanted varieties of apples-must not be graded and packed (and probably wasted in the end), but must be bagged up for 'dispatch to byproduct plants. „ . . “There already exist New Zealand factories that can utilize good rejected apples, and the machinery for some other processes can be obtained in Australia. Not long tfgo a Christchurch firm sought a permit to make alcohol from apples, so as to provide a base for certain wines, but apparently somebody in a. department did not approve of the idea and it. was squashed. , . . “There is a potential market for 306,000 gallons of apple juice as a fruit drink, not a beverage. Apples can be pulped to form a base for jams and sauces. They can also be canned in blocks, and the residue —skins and cores _niixed with bran makes an excellent stock food. It .is estimated that at least 500,000 cases of apples can be diverted to by-products without being graded or cased. “Not only is it right that as a war measure the War Administration should stop the unnecessary handling, casing, transport and marketing of thousands of bushels of unwanted apples, but fruitgrowers will welcome timely Government action of that sort so that the industry will have a chance of thriving after the. war when it may have to stand on its own feet.