NEW ZEALAND APPLES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 6 December 1927, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND APPLES

“SECOND TO NONE” EXPORT POSSIBILITIES The appended letter, written by fe Meredith Weir, appeared in a recent issue of (lie Auckland “Star”: “I was especially interested in vour article regarding the packing of export apples. Last season, when in London, I had the occasion several times to visit the great markets there in company with one of the lending fruit buyers of the great metropolis. There I saw ri sight welt worth the trouble. To me it seemed a. new chapter in the history of export undreamed of or üblionrd of before—New Zealand, fruit! There is a general belief in New' Zealand that the apple market greatly exceeds, the (loin and, blit, sir, it is a, mighty industry of .which the fringe has not yet been touched and one that should and could compare in the total valuation, capital and investment with that of our wool, cheese and butter industries. Why all the crying out about poor gum lands and our deteriorated lands - when the whole world is hungry and famishing for our best production—apples? But why was it that South African apples returned about 2s 6d to 4s per. case more than our apples? Not by any means or measure could .that fact be attributable to the quality, taste arid general grading of their apples, for in that respect our apples were far beyond comparison with the South African product. Our apples are considered to he second to none offering. Where we fail, and sadly too, is in the packing. The South Africans are well awake to this fact and they scored.off everyone with their packing, for where other competitors were using common tainting paper they were using a plentiful'supply of wood wool instead. Each layer of apples was evenly 'packed in wood wool, and paper was thus eliminated. I venture to say the time occupied in our packing could easily be cut down by eighty per cent if wood wool was to bo employed. As the cases were opened, Tasmanian, South African, Australian, Californian, the bruising of the New Zealand product seemed to stand out most prominently, and yet the opinion was expressed on all sides arid shades of buyers and sellers alike in the taste arid colour and grading New Zealand- was far ahead.”