ORDER FOR TOBACCO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21250, 2 August 1932, Page 10

ORDER FOR TOBACCO

TRIAL SHIPMENT WANTED ENGLISH FIRM INTERESTED SUPPLIES NOT AVAILABLE An order lias keen sent by a leading English firm of cigarette manufacturers for a trial shipment of 50001b. of best New Zealand cigarette tobacco for uso in a new brand of high-grade English cigarette. Very reluctantly the New. Zealand agents havo had to reply that the order cannot bo fulfilled, the reason being that the entire output of fine tobacco in the Dominion is absorbed under contract by locally-operating concerns. "It is unfortunate that just when an opening in tho English market would appoar to bo made for us we are unable to despatch even a trial shipment," said an oflicor of tho Department of Agriculture yesterday. "The position is that while considerable quantities of very fine leaf are being turned out in tho Nelson Province, tho Nelson growers .are engaged under contract to two New Zealand companies which purchase tho entire crop. Highgrade tobacco is also being grown in the North Island, particularly in North Auckland and tho Bay of Plenty, but the output is still so small that it would be impossible to obtain anything like 50001b to.make up a shipment. The bulk of the tobacco grown in tho North Island is pipo tobacco and of no use whatever for making cigarettos. "It is seven years since tobacco was first grown in tho Nelson Province and a surprisingly good leaf is now being produced. It is, in fact, superior to the American and other leaves which come to this department for purposes of comparison. Tho chief secret in growing tobacco of that quality is a black, level, sandy soil, from which nitrogenous substances havo been removed. Good soil of that type is to bo found in Nelson and in the Bay of Plonty, and I havo little doubt that in a few years tho Bay of Plenty will be doing nearly as well as Nelson. It needs to be understood, however, that as far as tho London order for a sample shipment is concerned, the quantity of high-grade tobacco required is simply not available at present." "There is a big market overseas for New Zealand tobacco as soon as tho Dominion is in a position to export it," said an Auckland business man interested in the industry. "Apart from Nelson, where tho industry is well established, I hold out great hopes for the Bay of Plenty, where a great deal of tobacco is going to be grown four or five years from now. Even at present much valuable knowledge is being obtained there. In the vicinity of Tauranga tho land is well suited to tobacco growing and the sunshine is brighter than it is in Auckland." Tho principle mistake which was being made in connection with tobacco production in the North Island, he said, was that what was essentially an air-dried leaf was being fiue-curcd. The Auckland Province was ideally suited to air-drying and could produce a better air-dried tobacco than Nelson. The air-dried tobacco now being grown in the Bay of Plonty. was really a very fine article, of which more would be heard in tho near future, lhe great hope lay in tho fact that while there was any amount of low-grade tobacco available in the world for the English markot, supplies of high-grade tobacco, such as could bo produced in tho Bay of Plenty, were none too plentiful.