FRUIT GRADING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23002, 1 April 1938, Page 13

FRUIT GRADING

Sir, —In your issue of March 25 you refer to- the gazetting of the New Zealand-Grown Fruit Regulations, 1938, and continue, "Grading standards are set out bo that all reasonably marketable fruit will fall into one or other of the grades." A memorandum setting out the grading standards was received by the growers early in the month, and we are therefore able to judge whether or not all reasonably marketable fruit can be included in one or other of these grades. I need only refer to Commercial "B," which is the lowest grade permitted to be sold. After a careful perusal I hare no hesitation in saying that if these standards are adhered to thousands of cases of good utility apples will each year be fed to animals, while many children throughout the Dominion are starving for apples and the public paying up to 6d per ib. for apples which for utility are little or no better than these outcasts. I am certain that if the public realised the enormous waste these regulations entail there would be such' an outcry that the regulations would very speedily be withdrawn. These regulations are presumably drafted to assist the fruitgrowers, but so far as the owners of small areas, who do not possess mechanical aids, are concerned, the benefits, if any, are more than cancelled out by the expenditure and extra work involved in grading and marking. It would seem that those responsible for the drafting of these regulations do not understand that the growers' prosperity depends upon consumption, not destruction of tlicir product. 20 Years a Fruitgrower.