WASTE OF APPLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1941, Page 2

WASTE OF APPLES

AND SALE AT HIGH PRICES POSITION IN CHRISTCHURCH. CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT METHODS. Apples are at present being auctioned in Christchurch fruit markets at an average price of about Ils a case, and at this figure the Government is reported by growers and others interested in the fruit business still to be making a loss, principally because of the exceptionally heavy waste, the “Christchurch Press” reports. There is strong criticism of the policy of the Government in putting into cool store Nelson apples, which do not have a reputation as sound keepers, in preference to the Canterbury fruit, which is'suitable for storing because of the colder climate in which it is grown. Until recent weeks, apples, which are now in short supply, were distributed from the markets at the Government fixed prices, but at present the fruit as it comes to hand _ is put up to auction and is bringing high prices. All the fruit, which comes mostly from Nelson, has been repacked, with a loss of about 50 per cent, and is in fairly sound condition. Prices a case by auction in the markets last week ranged as follows: Delicious, 12s to 14s; Sturmers, 8s to Ils; Granny Smith, 10s to 11s; Dougherty, up to 14s. This fruit will- be sold in the shops at from 5d to 8d a pound. The position this year has been that the Government urged growers, wherever possible, to store their fruit in their own orchards, and this was done to a large extent. Some of the fruit thus stored deteriorated and had to be dumped. SALES AND WASTAGE. “This policy of keeping the Nelson growers on the market at whatever the cost is putting the Canterbury men .out of business,” said Mr E. Freeman, chairman of the Waimairi Fruitgrowers' Association. “When we had the selling we got higher prices, and there was not half the wastage. This year Canterbury growers would have done well if they had had their apples in cool store. This Government interference is causing a lot of trouble,” Mr Freeman said. “It would have been much better when the overseas market was lost because of the war, to have stopped production in Nelson and let the rest of the New Zealand growers carry on as before. Up to the present it has cost the taxpayer £500,000 to sell the surplus crop, thousands of cases have been dumped, and the market has been ruined for the ordinary grower,” Mr Freeman continued. He added that to get. the fruit from Nelson to Canterbury it cost the Government 2s a case for transport and Is 3d a case for storage, and when the fruit had to be repacked there was a loss of about 50 per cent. “And it looks as though the same position will crop up again in the coming season. There is absolutely no use producing crops which are not required,” Mr Freeman concluded. VIEWPOINT OF GROWERS. “It would suit Canterbury, growers better to put the fruit on the market 'hemselves,” Mr B. T. Turner, president of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers’ Association, said. “We in Canterbury "eceive the same price as the grower 'n Nelson, who gets all his transport "'barges paid by the Government. Ou” fruit is in better condition, and n s we have bought land at a high price ‘■•o that we could be near the mm’b'Y •”? should receive a better price than N n lson grower, who is really in the backblocks. It is not 1 practical fo v the same measuring rod to be used throughout New Zealand, when Nature has placed us on a different basis “If we do not get enough from a bumper crop, then it is impossible for us to carry on over the bad, years which occur- every now and again,” Mr Turner continued. “Some of the growers who have sent in early apples have received only ordinary prices for fruit which has brought large returns. “The trouble is that much of the Nelson crop which was put into cool store had to be brought on to the market at the same' time as the Canterbury fruit, which was packed at the orchards,” Mr Turner concluded.