EGGS FOR EXPORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19419, 30 August 1926, Page 7

EGGS FOR EXPORT.

AUCKLAND PREPARATIONS. PACKING COMMENCES TO-DAY. SHIPMENT ON F. 0.8. BASIS. Eggs have now become low enough in price to permit of export, and the first shipment will leave Auckland for London by the Corinthic, about September 25. This morning the work of grading and packing will Commence, and it is a most interesting process, every cars being taken to ensure that, nothing but the very best is shipped. This is most important, for an egg which breaks or goes bad would probably ruin the whole box by the time it reached London.

Accordingly the shippers are co-operat-ing with the Department of Agriculture, and Mr. E. C. Jarrett, the Government poultry expert stationed in Auckland, will personally examine every egg, to make sure it is absolutely fresh and freo from all cracks and other blemishes. This is very rapidly done. Assistants first put the eggs on trays, about five dozen at a time, their work including the separation of white eggs from brown ones, as it has been found they sell better when packed in uniform colours, and the assistants also reject, any that are not spotlessly clean, or that are under 2oz. in weight. This size is the standard now recognised by the egglaying competitions, both in Auckland and the South. Detecting the Flaws. Mr. Jarrett passes the trays over a kind of sink, fitted with powerful over a kind of sink, fitted with.'powerful electric lights, and as each egg is set in a circular cavity in the tray, about an inch and a-half in diameter, the brilliant light from underneath makes the eggs practically transparent, and at one glance over the tray it is quite easy to detect a flaw. Very rarely is a flaw detected which renders the egg .unfit for local sale. Of course, if the egg is stale it is destroyed at once, but numerous minor faults which are no detriment to immediate use would probably soon develop into major faults and imperil the whole shipment.

The shippers and tho department are determined to secure a "good name for New Zealand eggs, or rather to maintain the good name which, they have already gained, as a result of the fine quality shipped in 1923 and 1924. During botci those seasons New Zealand eggs realised a higher price than eggs from Australia, South Africa or the Argentine, the ohly bther countries in the Southern Hemisphere which shipped to London. The difference in the seasons makes it eminently profitable to ship from New Zealand and these other countries, for the greatest scarcity and highest price in London coincides exactly with the flush of the season's production here. Prices oil London Markets. All the eggs this year are being shipped on an f.o.b, basis, and not on consignment, so that producers will know at once what they are to get, and will receive it in prompt caSb, instead of having to wait until the eggs are actually sold in London. At present this appears to be rather fortunate, for: tho High Commissioner's fortnightly quotations show tho London market is, hardly as high as it has been in former years at tho same time. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they will not be just as high as UsuaJ. during November .aiid early December, tho scarce, time in London, unless it encourages the preserving of larger,, quantities.

■ Producers are now advised to pack separately the eggs intended for export, as this,will minimise the cost, of handling and grading, and the shippers specially request that none but those spotlessly clean and fresh should be so packed. The shippers will do their part and all tho eggs will bo sent away in the style of box and packing which embodies the latest improvements that experience can suggest. Each day's arrivals will be graded and packed at once, and kept in cool store until tho Corinthic is ready . to receive them.

Producers' Opportunity. It now remains for tho producers themselves to decide how much they intend to sebure out of the ten to twenty millions sterling which Britain pays every year for imported eggp, ' Apparently there is each year an exportable surplus .in New Zealand, for. last year., none were exported, and this caused'a' much larger quantity than usual to be preserved by pulping. It Is understood that, ■in con* sequence of this, there-was a fairly heavy carryover at the end of the season, but that most of this has now been absorbed. This experience, however, will no doubt somewhat restrict the local demand during the present season's flush, so that there will probably be no difficulty in making up several substantial shipments, not only from Auckland, but also'from the other main ports. It is expected the first shipment will comprise 60,000 dozen, of which about half will go from Christchurch.