MARKETING FRUIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20649, 22 August 1930, Page 15

MARKETING FRUIT.

PROPOSALS FOR AMENDMENT. EVIDENCE AT INQUIRY. [by telegraph.—PßESS association.] WELI/EKGTON, Thursday. Further evidence on the marketing of fruit and vegetables was heard to-day by the Industries and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives. Mr. Kinnaird, representing the Central Otago Fruitgrowers' Association, said he was of the opinion that the basis of standardisation and the ultimate stabilisation of the industry lay in the elimination of small fruit, and he gave sizes that had proved in Otago to be economic from the point of view of the grower, retailer and consumer. He emphasised the success of co-operation in Otago, and said it was a recommendation from the growers there that every assistance should be given by the Government toward the establishment of co-operative concerns owned entirely by growers elsewhere. Evidence was given by Mr. Thomas Eldridge on behalf of the Christchurch Retailers' Association, He asked that the Government should regulate the export of fruit and so ensure that sufficient of all grades should be retained for local consumption. They claimed that too much first-grade fruit was going out of the Dominion. A reform in the selection and marketing both of fruit and vegetables was advocated, and the repacking of all Island oranges showing more than 10 per cent, waste. An inquiry should be held by the Government into the banana trade, as it was considered that the landed cost was too high. Dr. B. H. Makgill, consultant to the Department of Health, who is also an orchardist, said he thought there was a small profit in an orchard, although his own did not show one. Fruit could be bought in case lots at auction at fairly reasonable prices, but in small lots from shops it was another story. He 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, the wholesale merchant, nor tho retailer benefited. It was possible to organise a system under which 101b., 201b. and 401b. lots of frufl could be delivered at consumers' homes at about the price now obtaining in the auction rooms. Ho did not favour compulsory grading. If a grading system was brought in he thought the public would seek graded fruit, and ungraded fruit would fetch a smaller price.