FRUIT FOR THE EMPIRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19384, 20 July 1926, Page 11

FRUIT FOR THE EMPIRE.

THE ECONOMIC COMMITTEE. PROPOSALS IN REPORT. ENCOURAGING PREFERENCE^ The Imperial Economic Committee appointed last year " to consider the possibility of improving the methods of preparing for market and marketing within the United Kingdom the food products of the overseas parts of the Empire " issued its third report on June 16. Tho report presents the results of an extensive inquiry into the marketing and preparing for market of fruit. Sir Halford Mackinder, the chairman, and his fellow members, after a detailed investigation of the existing position, considered three policies. Two of these, concerned with schemes of embargo and license, and with suggested customs preferences, they were unable to recommend and they report that the one policy which seems to be immediately available is that of developing voluntary preference on the part of the consumer. This, they say, must be based on the organisation of the producer within the Empire, and the mobilisation of the consumer within the United Kingdom. In 1924, the report states, the value of the total fruit imports into the United Kingdom was £48,300,000, but of this fruit to the value of £3,500,000 was re-ex-ported. Of the £48.300,000 no less than £38,500,000 was paid away to countries outside the Empire. To America £11,000,000 was paid, to Spain nearly £7,000,000, to Greece and Central America £3,000,000 each, and to Turkey £1,300,000. Corresponding amounts paid within the Empire were £3,000,000 to Australia,, £2,000,000 to Canada, £1.000,000 to South Africa, £700,000 to the West Indies, and £168,000 to New Zealand. It is the, opinion of the committee that the bulk of the fruit requirements of the United Kingdom, so far as these are supplied from oversea, might, with the exception of grapes and oranges for .winter consumption, be met from within the Empire. The Chief Competitors. The fresh fruits which the people of Britain eat most extensively are apples, oranges and bananas. Every person on an average consumed in 1924 about 100 apples, 70 oranges and 30 bananas. Out of the 100 apples eaten 38 were supplied by the United States, 25 grown in the United Kingdom itself, 19 imported from Canada, and eight obtained from Australia and New Zealand. Of the 70 oranges consumed 57 were supplied by Spain, seven by Palestine, three by South Africa, and one by the United States. Of the 30 bananas 18 were derived from Central America, seven from the Canary Islands, and five from Jamaica. "In regard to each of these fruits there is," the committee state, "a foreign count)'}' whose supply is so great as to dominate the United Kingdom market. It is true that in the case of apples the United States, although -contributing the largest quota, only supplies 38 per cent., hut. the vast American crop has an influence on market conditions in the United Kingdom out of proportion to the actual quantities sent. An organisation under American control monopolises the whole supply of bananas from Central America and Jamaica to the United Kingdom, thereby controlling the sales of 23 out of the 30 bananas consumed per head of the population in 1924. The preponderance of the Spanish supply of oranges is equally' obvious." The American apple market, the report adds, is. protected by a Customs tariff. Production has been developed to a point where an adequate supply can be guaranteed to the Home consumer, even in a year of relatively small crops. In a normal year there is, therefore, a surplus available for export, and in order to avoid glutted conditions in the Home market there is a tendency in a good year to throw the bulk of the increase into the export trade. The arrival of such supplies and the mere knowledge that they will be forthcoming tends to disorganise the United Kingdom market, and the effect is to wreck the prospects of the Home and Canadian grower. Moreover, American supplies can be, and have been, as in 1924, held in cold storage until the following spring so that they compete with apples from the Southern Hemisphere. The committee say that they have considered how the fruit industries of the Empire may be defended and developed in view of the foregoing facts. "Schemes of embargo and license have been proposed to us. Apart from other objections we find ourselves unable to recommend these because of the limitations imposed by the most-favoured-nation clauses in various treaties, when read in relation to the. Anglo-German Commercial Treaty.Ther6 is also the policy of customs preferences, but. at the Imperial Conference of 1923, it was agreed that this form of preference should not come within the purview of the 'lmperial Economic Committee. * Under these circumstances the one policy which seems to us to be immediately available is that which we have described in our first report as a policy of developing voluntary preferences within the United Kingdom. . . "We have come to the conclusion after careful investigation that, under the present system or lack of system, the cost of distribution in the United Kingdom- is on an average about equal to the whole cost of growing, carrying, and handling up to, and inclusive of. the mimarv sale in the United Kingdom. This matter, however, raises domestic issues within the United Kingdom, and we think that it should be dealt with rather by, the Food Council than by ourselves. Nevertheless, it is of great - importance, not only to the United Kingdom consumer. but also to the overseas producer." The Empire Marketing Board. The mobilisation of the consumer, the committee consider, must depend on providing such indication that the consumer may have the means of exercising his voluntary preference, and on such educative policy as will lead him to see that it is (o his own business interest, apart from all sentiment, to buy from his own best customers. In their first report the committee asked that what they described provisionally as an "executive commission" might be called into existence for the purpose of implementing schemes under their policy. Sir Halford Mackinder states that this commission had now been set up under the name of the Empire Marketing Board. The relations between the board and the Imperial Economic Committee were very important. The committee were quite clear that as an Imperial body they must limit themselves to giving advice to their respective Governments. There was, however, halfa million to be spent this year and a,million pounds next year, for which there must be constitutional responsibility to the British Parliament. The Empire Marketing Board,' which" was a departmental committee, would have this responsibility, but would work in close contact with the committee. In the present report the committee,have suggested functions for the "executive commission." In regard to research they lay stress on the need for economic as well as scientific investigation. There are at the present time difficulties, it is stated, in the way of financing the transport of fruit owing to the deterioration which may take place during transit and storage. It is necessary both to ascertain and to reduce these risks, which must be covered by some form of insurance before the financing of fruit can be carried on as easily as the financing of less perishable commodities is conducted.