MEAT AND FRUIT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 102, 27 October 1931, Page 10

MEAT AND FRUIT

PREPARATION FOR SHIPMENT

ADVICE FROM ENGLAND

Some advice to New Zealand and Australia concerning the carriage of chilled meat and fruit to England was given in a paper on marine refrigeration, read by Mr. J. Hamilton Gibson cm behalf of the author, Mr. A. -It. T. Woods, at a meeting of the council of the Institute of Marine Engineers,. England, _ recently, and reported in "Fairplay." The failure so far of Australia and New Zealand to share the chilled meat trade to England was believed by Mr. Woods to be principally due to the fact that highclass animals such as the Argentine produces 'are not available. Australia and New Zealand had also, Mr. Woods suggested, much to learn in preparation before shipment. The same point was emphasised in references to the rapidly growing business of fruit transport. He said that for the successful transportation of fruits producers and shippers had most important duties to perform in the. first stages. Different fruits each required varied and special treatment, such as attention during cultiva- j tioh, gathering at the right stnge of growth' or maturity, selecting' and grading, handling and packing, and piecooling before shipment. Pre-cooling before presentation at the ship's side for shipment, including the pre-cooling of the conveyance engaged in bringing the produce to the wharf, was, in. Mr. Woods s opinion, the basis of success in the transportation of all refrigerated produce. Neglect of pre-cooling fruit cargoes had been found by him to be the principal cause of many consignments ■ being received in England in an unsatisfactory condition. South African and Western American growers had adopted the practice of selecting and grading and precooling all exported fruit, and to-day the fruit from these countries was arriving in good and sound condition, and commanding as a consequence much higher prices. The process was now in fact so reliable that the fruits could be bought on shipment at the port of embarkation. Australian growers, although they had been shipping large consignments of fruit to England since ISSB, had been reluctant to adopt pre-cooling methods. Now, however, they were wakening to the fact- that until pre-cooling was universally adopted there would always be a considerable amount of risk and actual loss to the exporters or consignees or both.