NUTRITIVE VALUE

Southland Times, Issue 19831, 30 March 1926, Page 10

NUTRITIVE VALUE

( NOT ALWAYS PRIZED The Makura brought from Rarotonga a shipment of Cook Islands bananas, oranges and Lemons, which will be forwarded to the Dunedin Exhibition, where the fruit is to be offered for retail sale at the New Zealand Court. The Cook Islands Administration has organised this shipment for the purpose of .trying out the possibilities of tropical fruit in the South Island market; and, in view of the amount of public discussion which the question of shipping connection with the Pacific has recently received in the South, it is hoped that the response at Dunedin will be hearty. DEPARTMENT HOPES TO RECOUP ITSELF. The Department states that the fruit has been shipped under normal conditions; it is in no way specially selected fruit, but is an ordinary sample of what the Cook Islands can send to the market. It has been shipped as ordinary cargo. The Department has itself secured the fruit from the growers, has guaranteed them a certain return, and hopes to reimburse itself from the sales. It expresses some regret at the fact that in the circumstances it has been able to supply only bananas, oranges and lemons. The hope that Dunedin at exhibition time might be given the choice of mangoes, avocado pears, pineapples, limes, grapefruit, grenadillas, and guavas, was found to be impossible of fulfilment, because these fruits are not yet in season, and will not be in season before the closing date of the Exhibition.

As illustrating the uphill fight it faces to popularise certain Cook Islands fruits which are o-f excellent nutritive value, but which are not known to the public, and which meet with a wrtain prejudice in the matter of taste, the Department states that the avocado tgrows luxuriantly and bears prolific fruit crops, yet the fruit has so far failed to sell in New Zealand. Several cases were distributed by the Department in Wellington to Bellamy’s, the Union Steamship Company, and leading hotels and clubs, and “met with a mixed reception.” The manager of the Wellington Club wrote: “As requested by you, I had the avocado pears served to our members on two occasions at luncheon. . . . Were tasting them for the first time, I must confess, did not seem to appreciate them very much. . . My humble experience of catering seems to point to taste before nutritive value. The average person, strange to say, does not consider it.” A northern journalist wrote from Auckland to the Department: “I distributed the fruit, and in most cases the verdict was unfavourable, but I imagine that the nutritive qualities of the fruit would require to be better known before a demand could develop.” PERSERVERANCE WITH THE MARKET. But notwithstanding a deep suspicion that people like what they like rather than what is good for them, the Department is determined to persevere with further consignments of avocado pears, “as thousands of cases of this excellent fruit go to waste in the Cook Islands every season.” It is well known that certain fruit are “an acquired taste,” and that an acquired taste, like a second thought, is often the most lasting and useful. Grape fruit has also not yet caught the taste of the New Zealand public, and the same may be said of the Cook Island limes, though the quality is excellent, and these fruits, in countries where they are understood, are highly appreciated ipd are much used. The Department has to face many difficulties, such as cargo-working in the harbouriess Cook Islands, anti the distance and cost of sea-carriage; and it looks to New Zealanders to support the products of islands that come within New Zealand’s extended boundaries and for the government and development of which New Zealand is responsible.