WAR IN ORANGES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 81, 17 November 1928, Page 5

WAR IN ORANGES

U.S, MifiNAplfi TO SOUTH AI'JtUOAiMS. LONDON. A world war of oranges is imment. Bruces may drop lower Hum at any fime since xOiiJ because or a warning just issued by trie Oautormau growers tlran they intend to sdup 20,000 cases to London every week in tire late, autumn, wb,en the buying for viiristnias is brisk. This, intention involves the possibility'of a risiso for the (South Airicau growers- -Alter xne war hundreds of British officers migrated to the Capo and invested all their money in citrus fruit farms, with} the knowledge that they would have to manage as best they could for 10 years until the trees should reach the bearing stage. Though lesser crops were grown ancjl much comradely help had been extended to the orange farmers by the more fortunately placed, it has been a lean time for most of these fanners, but now, with almost 5,000,000 trees about to produce dividends, the Californian fruit interests aro seriously alarmed', and have decided to dump heavy shipments on European market this winter, regardless of

price. They hope thus to hold their old customers, and this may entail the ruin of the British growers in South Africa, who they believe, will sell their farms for whatever they will fetch if their forthcoming crop fails to show that there is good money in orange farming. Piquancy is added to the situation because it is mainly American experts, from, California who have superintended the planting of the orchards, the fighting of pests, and the nursing of the industry in general. It was from California that thje best varieties of navel orange were imported—and an American Jew, with three-quarters of a million citrus fruit trees, has the biggest orchard in South Africa,