NEW ZEALAND FRUIT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 192, 15 August 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND FRUIT

TWO NEW RECORDS SET. ) APPLES AND PEAR EXPORTS, j New Zealand sent more apples and 1 1 pears to Great Britain last year thau ever before. For the first tiling in his- * torv her exports of apples to Europe c exceded I,DUO,COO boxes. These facts I are contained in the Empire Board’s latest report, “Fruit Supplies in 1930,” w’hich shows that Great Bri- A tain is rapidly becoming a nation of J fruit-eatera. More fruit than has ever been eaten before, in any previous year, was consumed in 1930. To-day every man, wo- ( man and child is eating nearly 831 b. of fruit a year. This is just 12jibs, more f than in 1924. One-third of all the fruit eaten in t Great Britain now comes from Empire . countries. This compares with 22 per cent, two years ago. Almost 62 per j cent, of imported apples, nearly 40 per t cent, of bananas, and over half the | peaches, were supplied by the overseas f Empire in 1930. Empire oranges and grape-fruits also set up new high levels. + Apples the Favourite. Apples and oranges compete for the ' lead as popular favourites. Apples hold I pride of place with an annual consump- s tion of 2441 b., but oranges are only a { little over lib. a head behind, and have narrowed this margin down from 51b. ( in 1924. Oranges head the list of ini- ‘ ports. The consumption of apples, states the report, is determined mainly . by home supplies, which fluctuate between very wide limits. ( Bananas come third. Over I'lGb. a j head are eaten —21b. a head more than iu 1924. Imports are going up rapidly. i( Jamaica, in British West Indies, is nowj ( the largest individual .supplier. A £31,000,000 Fruit Bui, < Plums are next with nearly 71b. a head. Lemons take the fifth place, then - pears and gooseberries, and finally iirape-fruit, cherries, currants, and i strawberries, of which little more than a pound a year is eaten. The United ! Kingdom’s fruit bill (for imports only) 1 is about £31,000,000 a year. The rise iu consumption is mainly in imported fruits. Grapefruit, for instance, has gained popularity so rapidly that the quantity sold last year was nbout seven times as great as that sold in 1924. Peaches have trebled their sales. Thirty-one different kinds of fruit are ■ mentioned in the report as having been 1 imported last year. These include bil- i berries, cranberries, figs, mangoes, per- 1 «immons, naartjes, litchies, and avaca- i do pears. Larger quantities of fruit ' pulp are also being imported, mainly : from Spain and the Netherlands, but ' also from Canada and Australia. 1 Flowers and Vegetables. j Great Britain spends nearly £BOO,OOO j a year on imported flowers. The value < of these imports has almost doubled in the last five years. ( Over £10,000,000 worth of onions, 3 potatoes, and tomatoes are imported ( annually, mainly from Spain, France, - and the Channel Islands and the Canary . Islands, respectively. Imports of all . other vegetables were valued at about « £1,700,000 last year. Studies of the fruit imports of Ger c many, Sweden. Norway, and Denmark i —the four main fruit importing coun- c tries after the United Kingdom—show i that consumption of fruit is on the in- 1 crease in all these countries as "well as f in Great Britain. f