DRIED VEGETABLES

Grey River Argus, 29 November 1944, Page 4

DRIED VEGETABLES

Australian Industry

(Rec. 9.40) MELBOURNE, Nov. 23 Dehydration plants in Australia are now handling 67,000 tons or vegetables annually and reducing them to 10,000 tons of dried vegetables. About a further 100,000 tons of vegetables are canned each year for use by Allied forces serving in the South-west Pacific. These figures have been released by the Commonwealth Minister for Commerce (Mr. Scully), who said that vegetable processing in Australia was now thirty-five times greater than before the war. Dehydration, unknown commercially here before the war, had been developed until thirty-three units were operating. The cost ot some of the units was about £70,000. The Minister said that an ordinary transport plane could carry forward enought dried food to sustain a battalion in a forward area, for a week. The United States Army Director of Procurement in Australia, Colonel H. B. Hester, to-day gave a ■lunch to demonstrate the quality and palatability of foods produced and processed in Australia and now being issued to American forces . in the South-west Pacific. Everything served was Australian and came out of tins. The menu included fruit juices, roast beef and gravy, dehydrated potatoes, cabbage, beetroot, corn, peas, ice cream, raspberries, and cream. The guests refused to believe that the delicious roast beef and gravy had been canned until tins bearing the manufacturer's name were produced as proof. With one-third of the agricultural personnel in the fighting forces, Australia had doubled her agricultural acreage, said Colonel Hester. No country had done a better job, ana no country produced ftiner food in greater variety. LasiW ear Australia: had supplied IOO.CWOOO dollars worth of foodstuffs military forces. H