CITRUS FRUIT INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 12

CITRUS FRUIT INDUSTRY

A stimulus to the final development of the citrus fruit industry in New Zealand should be given by the Government assistance announced to-day. The favoured district is Kerikeri, where the settlers have formed a co-operative company to undertake the erection of a packing and curing shed equipped with the necessary machinery. "In order that the project may be vigorously advanced," the Government is making the company a grant of £SOO, with a further loan of £4500 free of interest for three years. This is certainly substantial assistance. It may be hoped that it will have the desired result of securing the more rapid development of a valuable industry and its final establishment on a selfsupporting basis, thus guaranteeing the eventual repayment of the State loan. If these objects are realised, the Government's intervention with public moneys will be justified by an increase in settlement and employment and a decrease in import's of citrus fruits, mostly from countries with which New Zealand maintains a heavily adverse trade balance, Last year, for instance, imports of lemons and oranges were valued at £134,000. There is no longer any doubt that New Zealand can grow not only all the lemons she requires, but also oranges and grapefruit. The trouble in the past has been the lack of organisation in the industry. Given proper curing, grading and packing, New Zealand citrus fruits can compete with the world's best. Organisation has also been required to take care of by-products from over-sized and lower grade fruit, by manufacturing lemon and orange peel and bottling the juice. Such economies will make a great difference to the financial basis of the industry and can only be secured by working in combination through a central packing and curing shed such a's is proposed for Kerikeri. Now that the industry appears to be getting on its feet, a note of caution may not be untimely against overdevelopment, a problem that has proved embarrassing in other countries. Some thought might also be given to the question whether the New Zealand orange crop could be so timed as to offer the minimum of competition with fruit from our Island dependencies.