TINNED FRUITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23703, 10 January 1939, Page 10

TINNED FRUITS

PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND LARGE IMPORTED STOCKS LOCAL MANUFACTURER’S COMMENT “ New Zealand produces only a fraction of the canned fruits used by her,” stated Mr W. Stevenson, of Messrs Irvine and Stevenson, Ltd., yesterday when commenting on a Press Association message from Wellington on the position of the industry in view, of the import licensing scheme. “ and imports are not likely to be greatly restricted. The fact that New Zealand has been over-importing is being lost sight of. A great deal of recent imports must still be in the Dominion unused, and a reduction of 15 per cent, or 20 per cent, will only bring stocks back to normal.”

“ It is only the American product that was mentioned on the unofficial ‘ banned list he continued, “ and there has been no canned fruit imported from the United States for several years, although some imports were threatened recently. It is unlikely that Australian canned fruits will be restricted." Mr Stevenson said that complaints had recently been made by the Australian canned fruit industry that manufacturers could not carry on when they were paying £lO a ton for psaches while in the United States the price was £5 a ton. The New Zealand price was £l6 5s per ton. The shrinkage in peeling and pitting was about 50 per cent.- so that the differences were even more than they appeared to be. Evidently under the New Deal regulations in America canners were receiving subsidies on fruits. In Australia, subsidies were also received, but the United States was out-bidding Australia in this respect. “ If there were profits in fruit canning in New Zealand,” said Mr Stevenson, “the industry would be in a much larger way. As a matter of fact, no canner in New Zealand could exist on the production _of canned fruit alone in competition with Australia. A similar complaint was made by Lord Nuffield in England. who said he could not compete as a private manufacturer with the German nation which was offering motor cars in England at less than the cost of production. The idea of large profits being made is really laughable. The merchants make far more profit out of reselling the few New Zealand packed canned fruits than the manufacturers ever do.”