FRUIT INDUSTRY

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1926, Page 6

FRUIT INDUSTRY

PRESIDENT’S COMMENTS.

(Per Press Association.)

NAPIER, June 16. Speaking at the annual conference of Hawke’s Bay fruitgrowers at Hastings, this morning, Air T. C. Brash, pxcoident oi the New Zealand Federation, said there was among growers and consumers an increasing conviction that the industry should seek to supply a better grade of fruit to local markets. The consumer was increasingly inclined to ask why the fruit to be bought in his own country was so poor, when that sent to England was making such a name for itself. That complaint was made against the dairy industry 25 years ago, but the consumer had rebelled, and butter now supplied to local markets was equal in quality to the best exported. The same remarks applied to the sale of meat. Mr Brash said that something must be done to standardise the quality of fruit sold locally. A clause in the Fruit Control Act made local boards at present impossible, but he hoped an amendment would be made this session.

Referring to the need for organising for the effort, Air Brash said there was growing up in New Zealand an increasing army of local agents of London merchants, and they were seeking to get shipments for their principals. They were not doing that for nothing. The grower did all the spade work in producing the fruit, whereas the agent reaped a very profitable reward for doing practically nothing. The speaker concluded with a plea for united support of the Federation’s trading enterprises. He declared that freight charges paid to shipping companies by the three New Zealand export boards amounted to three million pounds. /About half a million of Canadian fruit cases were imported into the Dominion last year, and this year the importations will reach approximately the same figure. This means that about £20,000 is lost to the New Zealand timber trade. The Canadian case is likely to increase, and is advocated purely because of its great superiority over the local production, by the Fruitgrowers’ Federation. Though the New Zealand case is so inferior, it costs more.