CAUSES OF DEAR FRUIT

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 25, 30 July 1917, Page 3

CAUSES OF DEAR FRUIT

Australia and Tasmania will have no ships to take away fruit this season. New Zealand is in a like predicament. All three must make the best of their local markets, But the local market, or rather the consumer, does not appear to have had fair treatment in the past. Mr. J. A. Campbell, Assistant-Director of Horticulture, writes in the Journal of Agriculture on the subject as follows:— "As far as the higher retail prices of fruit are concerned, the consumer had a legitimate grievance; as a matter of fact, he always has. But his grievance was not altogether with the fruitgrower, as there is usually a considerable difference (and this also applied last season) between the price the consumer has to pay for his fruit and that received for the same fruit by the orchardiat. The only person who sells cheap fruit is the orchardist himself, and he, as a rule, disposes of very little of his crop directly to the consumer. Apart from what is sold directly by the orchardist or through his associations, there is rarely any cheap fruit to be had in New Zealand.' "The fluctuation of seasons merely means to the consumer the difference between dear fruit and dearer fruit. The reason of this is that low prices are rarely passed on to their fullest extent, while ■high prices always are. "Unfortunately, there is little hope of relief until a, much improved and a, more direct means of distribution has been devised. When such a scheme, which is urgently desired, is introduced —and there are hopes that it will be attempted shortly—it will be to the interest of the purchasing public to support it in every way possible so as to ensure success." ,