The Evening Star FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1926. EMPIRE FRUIT TRADE.

Evening Star, Issue 19273, 11 June 1926, Page 6

The Evening Star FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1926. EMPIRE FRUIT TRADE.

The section of the Imperial Economic Committee’s report dealing with fruit is a particularly strong plea with the British consumer to do the part his Government seems unable, though willing enough, to do in the way of trade reciprocity with other parts or the Empire. All kinds of fruit are grown abundantly in various overseas dominions, but it has to fight hard _ for a footing in the Home Country against the old-established foreign sources or supply. The most outstanding instance is that of dried fruits. In these Australia has a young industry, which finds it hard to make headway against the age-old competitor in the Levant. From Australia House, London, the Australian Dried Fruit Board makes use of the same appeal as the Imperial Economic Committee. In a recent advertisement in a prominent London commercial paper the board suggests that the British consumer should help to increase the purchasing power of Britain’s best customers in the following pithy sentence“ Buy Australian dried fruits and assist the Empire to buy British goods.” Figures are printed in proof of the claim that Australia is Britain’s best customer, and the countries chosen for comparison are those which cater for the British demand for sultanas, currants, and lesias, They are (for the year--1925) :

Population. Purchases of Country. Millions. British goods. Australia ... 6£ £60,000,000 U.S.A. ... 116 52,000,000 Spain 21J 10, 1 000,000 Greece ... 7 6,000,000 Turkey ... 13 4,500,000

The Imperial Economic Committee makes the comparison more arresting by calculating the purchases of British goods per head of population by the various countries from whom Britain obtains her supplies of all fruit, both fresh and dried, and its summary works out thus: While foreign countries, which principally supply the United Kingdom with fruit, bought from the United Kingdom goods valued at 7s to 17s per head of their population, the Empire countries which sent frtiit to the United Kingdom bought from £3 to £l7 per head. There is no necessity for this anti-preference in respect to Empire-grown fruits. The committee expresses the opinion that “the greater part of the fruit from foreign countries, except grapes and oranges for winter consumption, might at no very distant date he obtained from British sources. The result would be a corresponding growth of the overseas market for manufacturers, owing to the development of important districts of the Empire which are suitable for the production of fruit.” The British Government’s belief in the assumed result has been shown by its extension of a preferential duty to Australian dried fruit, which is grown on irrigated small holdings, a fair number of which were prepared for and are cultivated by exservice British immigrants. But this use of the Customs tariff to give preference to Empire products is hardly to be expected in respect to fresh fruits. The Imperial Economic Committee avowedly leaves it quite out of consideration, and says that the deiired change jiust be accomplished fa fdw&jNf British consumer and

by the organisation of the transport and marketing of Empire fruit, chiefly along co-operative lines. In all spheres of trade it has been found impossible to “ educate ” consumers unless tbe lesson amounts to the supply of at least as good an article at a lower price or a better article at no higher price—and oven then they are often curiously slow to learn. But they are learning, and the Wembley Exhibition helped greatly in the process. It is to the importers in Britain to whom the fruitgrowers of the Empire will have to trust to the practical application in bulk of the Wembley sampling. Mr Frank R. Ridley, an English authority on this branch of trade, has outlined in brief some of the duties and difficulties of the fruit importer. He has to arrange weeks, and often months, ahead for a continuity of supplies, taking care as far as possible that the markets are not flooded. Arrangements have to be made with the various shipping companies for refrigerated space and credits fixed through the colonial banks, even if the fruit is not purchased in advance. The bulk of the fruit Ls sent on consignment to bo sold at best market prices, and the majority of growers, particularly those in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the far west of Canada, require financial assistance to help them in the payment of freights, cost of packing, etc., before the fruit is shipped. A crop failure or an abnormal crop is a very disturbing factor for both tho shipper and importer, but an abnormal crop proves the most difficult problem to solve, as refrigerated space on tho steamers is limited, and only certain steamers, are specially fitted with cool chambers for the carrying of fruit. Any attempt to send fruit by ordinary stowage wouldjbe disastrous, since tho majority of fruits must bo carried at certain temperatures to ensure their arrival in good condition. Science has only recently discovered that fruits, like human beings, breathe and require plenty of fresh air; consequently a circulation of air is necessary to disperse the carbon dioxide given off by tho fruit itself, particularly apples. With large cargoes the question of stowage in tho holds requires careful attention, as the carbon dioxide, being a heavy gas, sinks to the bottom of the hold, and must be dispersed to avoid damage to the fruit. Continuity of supply is a great factor in this as in most provisioning lines. In this connection .Mr Ridley writes: “Progress is gradually being made towards assuring an all-tbe-year round supply of fruit from Empire sources. Apples and pears from Canada are available from October till the end of April, South African deciduous fruits from December to April, apples and pears from Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand from March to June, and oranges and grape fruit from Australia and South Africa from July to October, while the West Indies provides bananas all the year round, and oranges, grape fruit, and pineapples from October to January. Last, but not least, Palestine contributes the luscious Jaffa oranges from December to March. Is it to be wondered at that the British public have become alive to tho great importance of our overseas dominions, and are showing a decided preference for fruits grown within the Empire? With the solution of intricate problems of refrigeration in transit, all fruits will arrive in good condition, and there will be a great expansion in the trade in Empire fruits to the benefit of the Empire as a whole. The dominions have the fruit; Great Britain has tho market.”

As to the question of distribution and the efforts made by producers to combine for the control of marketing, Mr Ridley states that fruit importers in Great Britain as a body dislike the policy by which it is sought to centralise the trade in the hands of a few firms. Primary distributors in London suggest that the tendency of the efforts towards centralisation or concentration of the business will eventually lead to price fixing by control of shipment, and that the competitive feature of the trade will be eliminated, to the detriment of the public. “If not thirty importers, why four or five?” they ask. “ And if four or five, why not only one, with complete control?” This criticism from vested interests, whose profit-earning power is curtailed or threatened, is only natural. As yet there is no conclusive evidence that the effect of control boards has been to hold up prices against the consumer. But those who have been studying tlio organisation of marketing in Britain appear to incline to the belief that the new co-operative or control system developing in various dominions has conic to stay. It is quite possible that the first engagement in the history of the control boards now developing will be a fight with vested interests handling the products of foreign competitors.