DECEPTIVE PACKING

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1080, 18 September 1930, Page 10

DECEPTIVE PACKING

EVIL PERSISTS DESPITE INSPECTORS FRUIT SEASON REVIEWED Satisfactory progress is being made in New Zealand's fruit exporting industry, according to the 1929-30 report of the Department of Agriculture. “The export figures for the 1929 season, though somewhat lower than those of the previous season, were the second highest on record, and the prices realised were quite satisfactory to the producer,” reports Dr. C. J. Reakes, Director-General of Agriculture. “The 1930 apple crop has been the heaviest so far recorded,” he adds, “and the fruit generally is of excellent appearance and condition. The season’s export will, no doubt, constitute a record. “However, there is some little doubt as to the final market returns being altogether satisfactory to the grower, owing to the hold-over of a large quantity of last season's American fruit, plus heavy shipments from the Australian States flooding the English and Continental markets.” In referring to the need for production economy, Dr. Reakes says that the call for lower costs and better and cheaper transport has given rise to a movement toward the establishment of a fruit research station. This question is being actively gone into. “It is alleged by those in the trade that, despite the activities of departmental inspectors, and the prosecutions instituted ity the department on account of false packing, there is a growing tendency on the part of a certain section of producers to place both fruit and vegetables on the market packed in a manner calculated to deceive the buyer,” adds Dr. Reakes. “In consequence of this, both retailers’ and producers’ organisations have asked that the matter be fully inquired into, together with the whole question cf the packing and marketing of fruit and vegetables throughout the Dominion. It will be of advantage if this can be done.”