THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 116, 14 May 1912, Page 2

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

UP-TO-DATE MARKETING METHODS.

The methods of marketing fruit in New Zealand are out-of-date, according, to Mr Boucher, Assistant Director of Orchards to the Agricultural Department. In the course of an address before the Tauranga Fruit Growers' Association, Mr Boucher remarked that although fruit liad been selling ait low wholesale prices during the season, yet apples and pears had been retailed at ,2d and 3d each, a price which was .prohibitive for the consumers. He had seen first-class Nelson peaches sold in Wellington at 2s per case, and retailed at 2d each. Bread, milkj meat, etc., were ordered in shops and delivered to the houses of the consumers, but if people wanted fruit they had to ,buy it in the shops of the retailers and take it home in a paper bag. - His opinion was that they could sell ten times the quantity of fruit if the growers organised and sold their products on a better system. At the present time the agents in the various towns sold the fruit one against another. He suggestedl the adoption of the California^ system of marketing, and mentioned that a. single Co-operative Association, with headquarters in Los Angeles, controlled the distribution of the whole citrus crop raised in the orchards of Southern California. Further, fruit was often placed on the market in an unripe condition, and such action did not tend to encourage people to buy i|t. He had actually bought fruit this season", and because it was not rirj# was forced to throw it away. From ' September, 1910. to September, 1911. New Zealand had sent away £56,000, principally for apples and pears, and they ought not to be importing fruit, because there was plenty of room for the expansion of the industry. Many growers had the impression, said Mr Boucher, that fruit would not keep in cool chambers, but that was erroneous. They had! two excellent cool stores in. Auckland, and if the fruit did not keep it was mainly due to the rough handling in gathering it. If defective fruit were sent to the cool chambers-it. .would-come out defective.* The Department had forwarded fruit' from the South of New Zealand to tbn Auckland coo 1 stores,

a^id it had been taken out in.perfect condition. Mr Boucher advised growers to grade and pack for the local market the same as they would for export, so as to gain experience in what was an important branch. THE EXPORT TRADE. Two buyers had arrived from America this season to purchase fruit for export, and they laid special stress on the need for expert grading and packing. The cost of paper for wrapping apples was a littkToyer, one penny per case, and the packing of fruit for the local trade the same as for export would prevent the fruit from getting bruised. There was a large demand this season for apples for export, said; Mr Boucher, and there were, now two American buyers in the country who each required 20,000 cases of apples. One had secured some fruit in Nelson, and was now in Auckland. It was hoped to send away 1000 cases by the s.s. Rimutaka, the price being 6s 6d per case of 401b. f.o.b. port of departure. In the early part of the season the Department received an order'" for 20,000 cases of apples. Wires were sent to various districts, asking what supplies were available. The replies came back that little or no fruit oould be supplied, but in one district alone 10,000 cases of apples could have been supplied, and the sale of ' such a quantity for export would have had a beneficial effect on the local market. The growers should organise, so that by combination they could supply such orders as those referred to. It should not be forgotten that planting was going on. In one district in" Nelson 200,000 apple trees had been planted last season, and in the same district it was considered that a similar, number 'would also be planted this year. To I obtain the best results, growers : should federate, and by that, means i secure information in regard to the I production of every district. This would prevent, gluts arid enable prices to be regulated and would bring the I producer into i closer touch with the consumer. : The best varieties of aoples for export,were Cox's Orange Pippin, Jonathan, Stunner. Munro's Favorite, 'Cleopatra, Delicious. Scarlet Nonpareil, and Scarlet Pearmain. The best canning peaches were: GoMen Queen. Warner, Muir, and possibly James's Seedling. Kalamazo was also a good canning peach but showed .a tint of red at the pit.