EXPORT OF APPLES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18591, 27 June 1922, Page 6

EXPORT OF APPLES

FAVOURABLE COMMENT. EFFICIENT PACKING AND GRADING. (Fbom Oub Own Cobbbspondxnt.) LONDON, May 5. The season for Australasian apples has proved satisfactory for the shippers (says r.hp Daily Telegraph). The exhibition at Australia House, which is to be followed by one at the office of the High Commissioner Tor New Zealand, has doubtless directed attention to tlie fruit, for which there is a keen demand. In recent years there have been signs of increasing care in making shipments from the Antipodes to the English market, and the improvement in this , respect continues. It would be wrong to imagine that perfection has been attained. For instance, tee condition in which consignments of pears have been received indicates that the particularly some in Tasmania and Victoria, have still scope for improving their methods of packing. But the freshness and quality of the majority of apples that have arrived afford an example of tlie . triumph of refrigeration. The most popular, perhaps, axe tee crisp Cloopatxas and th 3 rosy-coloured Jonathans. But there is a good demand for the Cox’s orange pippin; indeed, all varieties are selling well. Their quality is such that it is to oe regretted that the public are not able to have a larger share in the harvest of the Australasian orchards. The displays of Australasian apples are tempting to the eye, as 'well as to the palate. But for a large section of the public' they will probably be forbidden fruit at the prices at which they arc offered. And yet the prevailing quotations are not unreasonable when the charge connected with the marketing of th© fruit thousands of miles from the areas of production are considered. While it is possible to sell some varieties at 6d per lb, it is necessary to charge 8d and 9d for others, such, for, instance, as Cleopatras, Jonathans, and the Cox’s orange pippin. Retail distributers are paying from 15s to 20s per box for the fruit, or 4jd to 6d per lb, and for the best Cox’s pippin the wholesale price has been over 7d. Taking into consideration the cost of freightage, which is 63 per box, and the charges connected with the marketing of the fruit, it has been estimated that an average of 15s per box for all varieties is necessary to afford the growers a profit, and probably this will be the result of tlie enterprise at the end of the season Tasmania is the chief apple-growing state in the commonwealth, and exports the largest quantity of the fruit received in the English market. There are consignments from West and South Australia, as well as Victoria, and this year, for the first lime. New South Wales lias marketed apples in this country in commercial quantities. New Zealand mav also be regarded as a new source of supply, and so far this season no apples have been received from the Antipodes superior to those from this dominion. There have been oases, where the fruit has been more efficiently graded than that received from Australia, and packed in boxes more suitable for overseas trade than those used in some of the commonwealth areas of production. The brick-coloured cases in which quantities of apples arrive from Tasmania and South and West Australia are lax from attractive. New South Wales in the first year of its enterprise, has achieved a good standard of packing and grading, although some of tlie growers have shown an inclination to export dessert apples that, are too largo for the tastes in the English market. To pack pears in bushel boxes is to invite trouble, and this plan having been adopted, many peaxs have arrived in an unsatisfactory condition. There is no -easoii why pears should. not be shipped, to England from Australasia for marketing purposes, but they should be packed in single layer trays, a method which is successfully adopted by the South African groweis.