Reasons For Stale Fruit Explained By N.Z. Merchants

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 July 1948, Page 5

Reasons For Stale Fruit Explained By N.Z. Merchants

(P.A.) Nelson. June 30. Representatives of the New Zealand Fruit Merchants and Auctioneers Federation told fruitgrowers at Tasman that there were numerous occasions when various lines of apples and pears, including Gravensteins and Coxs, were sold at prices as low as 2s and 2s 3d a case under instructions from the Marketing Department. These occurrences were the result of overlong holding for prices in excess of the market value. It was stated that another result of the department’s policy was that a large percentage of the main varieties reached the public in a stale and sometimes over-ripe condition. Messrs H. Turner (Auckland), president, H. E. Radley (Christchurch), and A. Donald (Auckland), all members of the federation executive, addressed the meeting.

The speakers said the federation had offered its services to both the Government and ’.he Fruit Marketing Council during recent vears, but the offer was not accepted. In consequence, the wholesale distributors were kept completely in the dark as to what fruit was available and where. Though the .federation’s members had sold the bulk of the fruit over their floors under the direction of the 1.M.D., their knowledge and experience had never been called on in the important matters of fixation of prices and the time for marketing particular varieties. That failure to emplov the expert knowledge available had resulted in the growers not doing, as well as they might have and the consumers not being supplied with fruit as fresh as it should have been.