EGGS EXPORTED.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13929, 10 February 1914, Page 4

EGGS EXPORTED.

SUCCESSFUL SHIPMENTS TO

AMERICA

GRADING BY GOVERNMENT

DESIRABLE

(Special to "The Colonist.")

Wellington, Feb. 9. A satisfactory opening for New Zealand eggs has been created in the Vancouver market, and it will surprise most people outside the associations of poultry-keepers to learn that no fewer than ten thousand dozen were shipped this season to the American port. The outstanding lesson learned by the preliminary shipments is that if the oversea egg industry is to be established on a firm and satisfactory footing, it is absolutely necessary that tho system of grading which has proved so successful in our dairy industry should be extended to this new. industry, ■v^hich gives every promise of becoming a valuable addition to New Zealand's export trade, and at the same time providing a living for, or materially assisting, large numbers of settlers. It is essential in this industry, as in others, that the exported articles should bear the hall mark of quality of the Government grader.

Last year the New Zealand Government sent a trial shipment of eggs to Vancouver. The eggs reached tho oversea market in excellent condition, thanks chiefly to the .care taken of the consignment by the chief engineer of the Marama, who supplied the daily temperature of the cool storage chamber during the voyage. An average temperature of 40 degrees, was maintained, the minimum being 37 degrees, and the maximum 45 degrees. Tho Vancouver merchants who sold the eggs report that the most successful method of packing was considered to be tho placing of the eggs in cardboard fillers, and depending on the cool storage on board ship to arrest deterioration. Tho sterilisation process—preserving by tho cabinet system—did not appeal to tho Vancouver firm. An important fact brought out by the test was that eggs which had been a month in. one case, and ten days in another, in cool storago prior to shipment, arrived as well as the quite fresh eggs, placed direct into the steamer's cool chamber. Iptrcrs woro recently -being retailed at Montreal at from 60 to 70 cents per dozen. The experimental shipment of eggs made to the London market arrived in excellent condition, proving that NewZealand eggs can be shrined successfully to distant oversea markets if carried in a cool chamber at a temperature of. about 45 degree. An analysis made m London showed that they could fairly be described as now-laid." Tlioy compared favourably with ogfjs sent to Britain from Denmark and Russia. Tim London agents reported that tho shipment was entirely successful.