FRUIT EXPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 114, 11 November 1930, Page 11

FRUIT EXPORT

APPLES FOR ARGENTINE

A RESTRICTION REMOVED

Now Zealand fruitgrowers who export to Argentina, will be pleased to. learn that the New Zealand Fruit Export Board of Control has just received advice from its Argentine agents that the regulation including New Zealand amongst countries, the products of which had to submit to eight days in refrigerated storage before being distributed, has been altered to exclude Now Zealand. This means . that the special containers stipulated by the Argentine Government, with air spaces between the boards of tho lids and bottoms to allow tho official refrigeration to penetrate, arc no longer necessary in the case of New Zealand fruit cases. The application of.the regulation to Now Zealand, whero there is no Mediterranean fruit fly; as established without doubt by the official visit of two Argentine entomologists . some four years ago, was naturally taken exception to, and steps were taken by the Fruit Control.Board and the Government to have the regulations removed so far as they affected New Zealand exports. They were originally framed to apply to.the United States and Canada,' which both export considerable quantities of . apples in barrels. The horticulture branch of tho Department of Agriculture, through the Argentine Consul (Mr. E. S. Baldwin), and the Government through the British Embassy in .London, pointed out thai. Now Zealand fruit had to pass at least three weeks, if not more, in refrigerated storage on tho voyage to Buenos Aires. Ie was also made clear that tho Mediterranean fruit fly did not exist iii New Zealand, and was unlikely to survive if accidentally introduced, because of unsuitable climatic conditions, and the lack of fruit enabling it to propagate during so many months of the year. These representations appear to have been effective. ■ . ] The Consul for Argentina (Mr. E. S. Baldwin) has received a cable from the Argentine Minister of External Affairs (Senor Bosch) stating that consignments of New Zealand' fruit will be admitted by tho ports of Buenos Aires and Rosario, where it will be subject to inspection, and will be allowed to proceed inland as far as Mendoza. (Mendoza is the station of inspection for fruit from Chile.) Tho cable proceeds to say that consignments of fresh fruit coming from countries where the existence of Mediterranean fruit fly is proved are being quarantined, and all seeds and plants must be accompanied by a certificate from tho authorities of the country of origin, vised by an Argentine Consul. The importation of fresh fruits in casks is prohibited, tho containers suggested being cases of white wood of first quality measuring lljin by lft SJiu by 3ft 3in, the bottoms and lids to consist of two or three boarfts separated by not less than threequarters off. an inch. The importation of apples from Canada and the United States in u'o-gallon casks is prohibited. In view of . the advice received by the Fruit Control Board, the above stipulated containers refer only to the United States and Canada, tho interstices being to allow of the percolation of the official refrigeration, and the' cases used in Now Zealand, on account of the fruit having three weeks in cold storage before it reaches Argentina, will suflico.