FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 August 1930, Page 5

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.

BETTER MARKETING METHODS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Further evidence on the marketing of fruit and vegetables was heard today by the Industries and Commerce Committee of the House. Mr Kinnaird, representing the Central Otago Fruitgrowers’ Association, was of the opinion that the basis of standardisation and ultimate stabilisation ot the industry lay in the elimination of small fruit and he gave the sizes that had proved in Otago to be economic from the point cf view of both retailer and consumer. He emphasized the success of co-operation in Otago and it was a recommendation from the growers there that every assistance should be given by the Government towards the establishment of co-operative concerns owned entirely by the growers elsewhere.

Evidence Avas given by Mr Thos. Eldridge on behalf of the Christchurch Retailers Association. He asked that the Government should regulate the export of fruit qnd so ensure that sufficient of all grades should be retained for local consumption. They claimed that too much first-grade fruit Avas going out of the Dominion. Reform in the selection and marketing both of fruit and vegetables Avas advocated and re-packing of all Island oranges shoAving more than ten per cent, of Avastc. An inquiry should be held by the Government into the banana trade as it Avas considered the landed cost Avas too high.

Dr, Makgill, consulting medical officer of the Department of Health, who is also an orchardist, gave evidence at the committee that he thought there was a small profit in an orchard although his own did not show one. Ho said fruit could be bought in case lots at auction at fairly reasonable prices, but in small lots from the shops it was another story. Ho condemned the present method of retailing in small lots in shops in main streets where rentals were high and overhead expenses heavy. Neither the grower, wholesale merchant, nor retailer benefited. It was possible to organise a system whereby 101 b, 201 b and 401 b lots of fruit could be delivered at consumers’ homes at about the price now obtaining in auction rooms. He did not favour compulsory grading. If the grading system was brought in he thought the public Avould seek graded fruit and ungraded fruit would meet a smaller price.