NEW ZEALAND EGGS.

Western Star, 31 December 1923, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND EGGS.

SUCCESSFUL SHIPMENT TO.-' LONDON. ■ - £

“ Next in quality to the English new-laid eggs.” This is the verdict' of an important buyer concerning Neiw Zealand eggs, 1500 cases of which arrived by the - Coriuthic recently. The same buyer took 200 dozen of and so pleased was lie with their quality that -he has ordered 6000 dozen to follow on. There have been previous consignments of eggs from New Zealand, but none have attained the success which has attended the shipment sent over by the New Zealand Poultry Association this season. These included: Five hundred boxes of 30. dozen each from Canterbury, 400 boxes from Dunedin, 300 from Auckland, and 300 from Wellington. The attention devoted to the shipment on the voyage and oiu- arrival by Mr J. B. Merrett (secretary of the Canterbury Co-operative Poultry Company) has doubtless gone a: long way towards ensuring the success of the venture. Half-a-dozen broken eggs in about 540,000 surely constitutes some- . thing of a record. The temperature in the store on board the Corinthic was kept at 34 degrees, and this did; not Vary more than two degrees throughout the voyage. At this temperature it was foUnd that there was pracically no moisture, and ,it is evi-. dent that the conditions thus acquired are far more, suitable than, those taining under a higher .temperature. ; Mr Merrett superintended ' the unr loading at Albert Docks, . with the happy result as already stated, that there were practically no breakages. The consignment was taken in hand by three Tooley firms—Messrs H. A. Lane and Co. have .handled 900 cases, Messrs A. J. Mills and Co 1 . 300, and Mr James Gillandors 200. They all express their satisfaction with the produce. The quality has been highly spoken of among all buyers, : and no fault has been found either with the packing or the grading. With regard to this latter, however, Mr Merrett states that> in a few instances the grading had a certain amount to be desired,, and more attention will, have to be paid to this-matter by some of the packers. The packing throughout was excellent, and the method adopted —“fillers, and flats with pads at topi and bottom and in the middle—has , proved to> he absolutely satisfactory. —Satisfactory Prices.—

Even though the eggs arrive at the ftuiy season l ; of, the year during which they have a. chance of being a profit- ■ able investment, there is nevertheless a very big competition. Russian eggs . are arriving and will do so until the Baltic Sea freezes. There are Polish eggs,, Czecho-SloyaJrian, Austrian/ Hungarian, Swedish fresh, and Swed-v isli pickled, Lithuanian, Italian, Australian, South African, American) and Canadian.' All these axo on the market at this time. In spite of ithis competition the New Zealand eggs ’ have commanded'.prices ranging from 21s to 24s per 120, though very few havo been sold at the latter price/ . This is equivalent te Is 3d per dozen ) to the '• producers, or the price at which .they were, sold in New Zealand at the time pf shipment. Remembering that the disposal of the surplus helped ttf maintain the local prices' ■ at the time, this return seems eminently satisfactory. There certainly appears to be no reason why .this should not be \he commencement of a consistent and protable trade; The - Rotorua, will arrive next week with 1500 cases, and it will bo interesting to compare the storage conditions of the two shipments. ‘Otago Daily Times ’ correspondent.