APPLE AND PEAR CROPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22785, 8 January 1944, Page 4

APPLE AND PEAR CROPS

Loss Of £90,808 On

Season

Review By Marketing

Division

(N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 7. New pip fruit crop last season totalled 2,026,000 cases of apples and 235,000 cases of pears, all of which were disposed of locally as follows: Civilian market 1,573,000 cases of apples, 201,000 cases of pears; Armed Forces 362,000 cases of apples, 34,000 cases of pears; schools 91,000 cases of apples. Repacking losses, including cool store wastage, amounted to .27 per cent of the crop. These losses were included in the figures given for civilian market consumption. There had been a considerable reduction in wastage during the last few years, said an official of the Internal Marketing Division to-day. In 1941 the wastage had been 2.2 per cent of the crop, in 1942 it had been .5 per cent and fast season only .27 per cent.

The division estimates that it made a loss of £90,808 on last season’s crop compared with a loss of £120,000 in 1942, a loss of £468,000 in 1941, and a profit of £2OOO in 1940. Before the war the normal crop was approximately 2,500,000 cases of apples and pears, roughly half of which was exported, leaving 1,225,000 cases for the local market. Since the war there has been no export, so that, though the crop last season was 225,000 cases fewer than normal, the amount available for the local market was 1,000,000 more than usual in pre-war days.

Supplies Regulated In spite of this fact, said the official, the demand could not be fully met. It had been found necessary to begin regulating supplies to the markets fairly in the year. As it was, stocks were exhausted by the middle of December. The demand was accounted for by the intensive methods of distribution adopted in recent years, the shortage of other fruits, such as oranges and bananas and the calls of the Armed Forces.

It is believed the demand will probably exceed the supply again this year. The estimated crop is 1,950,000 cases of apples and 225,000 cases of pears. Nelson’s production is considerably less than last year’s, probably only 60 per cent, as a result of unseasonal rain. On the other had the Hawke’s Bay crop is 50 per cent up on last year. The first of the new season’s crop reached the retail shops during the third week in December, but only in small quantities. So far there have been only a few hundred cases altogether. Supplies are increasing gradually, but it is not expected that there will be any great quantity about till the Gravensteins begin to arrive about the middle of the month. In the meantime the ceiling price in wholesale markets is 13/6 a case, which means the retail celling price is 6d a lb.