THE FRUIT INDUSTRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6861, 3 July 1909, Page 3

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY

EXPORT APPLE TRADE. THE QUESTION OE CASING. • In view of the praotioal endeavour to be made by Nelson growers during the coming season to establish an export apple trade with Britain, it is opportune to consider any lessons in this connection the experiences of Tasmanian end Australian shippers have to teach us. One thing which has recently come under our notioe cannot be emphasised too strongly. This is the method of casing. In the carriage of any perishable commiodity at a low temperature it is generally .advisable to pack aaid store it in such a manner that there should be a free circulation of air. Yet Commonwealth growers, it is stated, still persist in packing their apples in closely-boarded ooxes. In an, article which appeared in the "Australasian" recently, a London correspondent described how he watched the auctioning of a line of Tasmanian apples and investigated its condition. As samplecases were presented to the buyers by the auctioneer he wondered why the bidding was so slack. He subsequently learned that the apples had been delivered in an over-ripe condition, and buyers were chary of investing in fruit that might rot before it could be sold in the retail shops. The top price of the morning (this was in ithe third week of April last) was 15s, which was made for tivo cases ■of Cox's orange pippins, the only sound fruit in the consignment of one grower. After the sale the writer visited the cellars, whare he saw cases of apples, the balance of the line referred to, from which streams of brown juice were oozing. Three of the cases were opened. The good apples were embedded in a mass of brown pulp, formed of Itissue paper and decaying fruit. The correspondent proceeds:—

"Before) thle days of refrilgerating stores we found it easy to store' Ribstone pippins at my home, in South Australia, from one season to the next, in open boxes, in a kind of passageverandah, through which a ourrent of fresh air continually passed, and I cannot help thinking that much of the fruit sent from Australia would arrive in better condition if the cases in which it is packed had air-spaces between the/ battens. The manager of the fruit department of one of the largest retail stores in London told mo, when speaking on this subject, that they always store their apples in an underground passage, where a strong draught is always passing through, having found by ohance this the beat plaos ft>r them. Most of the Australian cases I saw appeared to be so closely made as to be praotically air-tight, noticeably those from Tasmania.

"Seeing that the total cost of putting

Australian apples on the London market is 5s Gd . a case, and that from 15s to 18s a case can be obtained for good fniit well graded and carefully packed, it should need but little further experience, with a proper appreciation of the lessons it teaches, to convert a speculation into a certainty." Tho above statement speaks for itself. It is suTely of sufficient significance to warrant some investigation into the stylo of casing to be adopted hy Now Zealand shippers, especially in view of tho fact that a successful initial shipment will do much to establish the trade on a permanently successful basis.