FRUIT INDUSTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 5, 6 January 1940, Page 8

FRUIT INDUSTRY

DISPOSING OF THE CROP MANUFACTURE OF APPLE .JUICE [Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 5. The Government's decision to purchase the coming apple and pear crop and attend to its marketing locally and overseas, gave added importance to the experiments being carried out by the Department of scientific anu Industrial Research on vaiious asi pects of storage and utilisation of ; fruit, said the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. ' Phe uncertainty with regard to the , available export, space for fruit made it most probable that there would be , a considerable increase in the amount ' of fruit available for local consumption. The question of storage of this fruit under the best possible conditions ' was therefore one of very consider- , able importance. In Britain refrigerated gas storage . of fruit already was being successtuny ' applied on a considerable scale anu j had done much towards solving the J local marketing problems by cn1 abling fruit to be held over longer r periods in better condition than un- ? der ordinary cold storage. Experi- ? ments on the application of gas > storage to New Zealand apples were ■ commenced by the department two > years ago and produced resuits indi- > cative oi the potential value of this 7 process in New Zealand. Referring to apple juice, the Min2 ister said; “The production of unler- - mented apple juice oilers a ver. - promising outlet lor the utilisation of 5 part of the surplus nun. mat h as > anticipated will be available. The de- : partmeni. has been actively helping to 1 xoster this industry by collaborating i m commercial-scaie experiments on ; the production of apple juice iroin l varieties of New Zealand apples. The i results nave demonstrated mat New Zealand apples can be successfully used lor this purpose and it now remains to increase the local demand, m ' the first instance by suitable publicity ; drawing attention not only to the desirable characteristics of apple juice as a beverage, but also to Us dietetic qualities. Arrangements have been made for a special display of New Zealand manuiactured apple juice ai the Centennial Exhibition.