STILL MORE FRUIT

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 46, 31 August 1928, Page 10

STILL MORE FRUIT

AUSTRALIAN SURPLUS SPECIAL DRIVE IN APPLES CANNED PRICE-CUTS Tho Australian canned fruit pack for consumption within Australia is given as twenty million cans (about'two -million above tho avorago), and tho cool-stoved apples that must be marketed in Australia before Christmas are estimated at over 1:} million cases. Special selling drives at low prices are planned. Recent published analyses of the market for Australian canned fruits have been made on tho basis of a total production of 37 million cans, of which 19 million cans go oversea and 18 million cans are consumed in tho Australian homo market. Still more recent figures issued from Canberra by the Commonwealth Markets Department, under date of 9th August, indicate that this year thero will be "an unusually largo pack for consumption within Australia," totalling 20 million cans, mostly peaches. This figure is exclusive of carryover figures of earlier packs. How long canned fruit can hang in some markets is indicated by a complaint from Aberdeen, where the Australian Scottish delegation, was able to buy "inferior Australian canned fruit which formed portiq*of a shipment to Britain by the stc4mier Hnoggcra, between throe and four years ago." In. reply to the complaint tho. Commonwealth Markets Department . stated at Canberra on 9th August that regulations now existing, but not existing at tho time of the Enoggera shipment, render impossible "a repetition of the sale of old and inferior fruit." TENPENCE A CAN SUGGESTED. Tho prospect of 20/ million cans of new pack coming on to the Australian home market has spurred the Minister j of Markets (Mr. Paterson, of Paterson j Plan fame) to propose a special'selling campaign within Australia. Mr. Paterson has suggested to the Victorian Canners' Association the specially low price of lOd a can, and to boost sales he suggests to the association that a levy be struck of one penny per dozen cans (to yield about £7000) for advertising and,publicity. According to the Press, "it is proposed that the canners and grocers should adopt the lowest price at which the fruit could be sold as a standard for the domestic pack, so that it would be possible for householders to obtain good fruit at uniform prices throughout Australia. About lpd a can was the price suggested. It is claimed that a few years ago a publicity campaign raised the consumption of canned fruit in the Commonwealth from oiie tin to three tins a head, although that level has since not been quite maintained." Another fruit-selling drive, for which special finance by levy is proposed, is planned by the apple interests. . Although so niany apples wore sent from Australia to Britain this year from this quarter of the globe—the Old Country, received over three million eases, New Zealand and Tasmania each contributing over one million—tho second week in August saw' an accumulation of applos in cool store in Victoria to the amount (estimated; of over 1,250,000 cases. The life of cool-stored apples is loss than tho.life of sanned fruit, and tho Victorian Superintendent of Horticulture (Mr. J. M. Ward) points out that' "to prevent these apples being wasted most of it will havo to be disposed of by Christmas,'which will mean approximately the marketing of 55,000' cases each week till December." A meeting of Victorian growing and marketing interests considered a proposal to hold an "apple week" on the lines of tho "peach week" hold in Victoria last February, but decided that a more prolonged selling effort was needed, and that the cool stores snould be asked to contribute an advertising and pubilicity fund at the rate of 10s per each 1000 feet of storage capacity. "TOPPED" FRUIT CONTAINERS. A retailer present at the meeting complained that tho growers asked too high a price. A grower replied that "a case of apples cost 3s 6d to produce, less tho cost of transport and the ease"; at the same, time, he. opposed price-fixing, " which would result in insufficient supplies being sent to the market." . ' :' ' On this the "Argus" comments: —■ /'With a million and a quarter cases of apples in cool store which must be disposed of, if at all, before next season's crop ripens, fruitgrowers and merchants are faced with a knotty problem. A special selling campaign, such as has been decided upon, will no doubt meet with as much public sympathy as similar, efforts in the past have met with; but the public must be assured of fair treatment. This has not always been accorded. All will remember the desperate efforts of orchardists a few months'ago to sell last season's remarkable crop. Many persons then bought excellent apples cheaply, but in numer- j ous cases inferior fruit and windfalls were passed, off on unsuspecting purchasers. Fruit dolivered at the door in the suburbs was often found to have been 'topped up' in the eases. Honesty and straightforward dealing are the only basis on which tho public will consent to help the growers out of their difficulty. The playing of tricks will bring its own punishment, which will affoet not only the current campaign, but future selling projects also. The advertising campaign will require to be supported by assured supplies se well as by assured quality. Much sujport was lost to peach week last summer through the growers' lack of cooperation. Holders of tho fruit should realise that in times of over-supply they must be prepared to do as other traders do in similar circumstances— sell off at prices that attract buyers."' As recent prosecutions in New Zealand Courts show, in this country a strong effort is being made to prevent "topping" and similar dishonest practices in the fruit trade. -.