THE FRUIT INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1924, Page 4

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY

It is a curious fact that the most ancient industry of fruit-growing is the Cinderella of the farming interests of this Dominion. For two years (it is said by those who have followed it closely) the fruit-grow-ers of New Zealand h,aye been carrying on their industry at a loss, or at least without any appreciable profit. This is speaking generally, for possibly some of them have done a little more than make ends meet. For 1922 and 1923 those who exported did'so at a loss; and as for the local market, it is averred, that has been supplied at well under the cost of production. For 1922 the Government, on its guarantee to exporters of Id per lb, paid to fruit-growers. £12,000 from the public purse, and for 1923 it may have to pay a sum equalling, if not exceeding, that amount. So, then, in two years the people of ■this Dominion will have paid out £24,000 to help the fruit export industry; and yet there is the anomaly that our own domestic market is not consuming nearly as much fruit as it could and should consume for the sake of the industry and for the sake of the public health. Reference to an article on the fruit industry which appears in another column will show why the anomaly exists that New Zealand itself can absorb almost all the fruit it produces at the present time, leaving Very little exportable surplus, and yet at the cost of £12,000 a, year is endeavouring, to build up an export .trade. It is not that the grower himself is making a fortune out-of, the business; on the he is having difficulty in keeping clear of a loss, and in making a/living. The whole trouble, so far as the important local market is concerned, is the high costs borne; by the fruit from the time it leaves the orchard to its final destination on the consumer's table.

Without going into details, some of the troubles of the fruit-growing industry can be rectified by growers themselves, and no one else;. This applies to the overseas market as well as to the local trade. The Department, of Agriculture is striving to put the industry on as good a basis as that of the dairy-export trade, with some attention given to the local market. The task is not easy, for it includes saving producers from themselves. New Zealand has given ample proof of its ability to grow the finest fruit in the world. Even citrus fruits, now so heavily imported ancl^ so dear, can be raised tp perfection in certain localities. The best of instruction and guidance is made free to brchardists by: the Government through the Horticultural Division; and yet it is admitted by authorities that, apart from the potentialities of the export trade, the local market is not absorbing anything like the quantities it could take. Propaganda work may do much to improve this aspect of the but inasmuch as the knowledge of fruit-eating goes back to the Garden of Eden, the people need less to be told to eat fruit than how they can-obtain enough of it at a reasonable price, so as to regard it less as a luxury than an indispensable article of daily food. The consumer, being unorganised, can do little to remedy defects or initiate reforms in the matter of distributive' costs of fruit. All he can do is to protest against high final costs by abstaining from buying.' Thus the outlet for the producer is constricted. It will be so until the burdens imposed on fruit after it leaves the orchard are materially lightened.