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BRANCH REPORTS Auckland The Auckland Branch has handled from the growers for the 1944 season 232,000 •cases of applesand pears (the largest quantity for several years) and distributed 800000 •cases—to public, 272,000 ; to United States Joint Purchasing Board, 466,000 ; and to New Zealand Services, 62,000. The butter plant, working two shifts for part of the year and turning out as high as 210 tons per week, has patted 78,000 boxes for the public and 209,000 boxes for the United States Joint Purchasing Board. Total butter 1^ ie d £1,250,000. Tlie butter - tinnin g p!ant, commencing in February, canned AAnT' " s • 6 reaclied Auckland in greater quantities, the peak week totalling 121,000 dozen, against 85,000 dozen for the best week of the previous year. A total of '21,700 401b. tins of pulp were manufactured, against approximated 5,000. To be marketed during April and May, 75,000 dozen were chilled. New emergency floors were begun m Tauranga and Hamilton. The Auckland Branch has managed the entire lemon-curing operation, marketed lemons m, its own area and worked under Head Office in receiving and distributing imported fruit. & Management of the PuJcekohe factory and of vegetable supply to the United States Joint Purchasing Board has also largely 'devolved on the Auckland staff. Bv the Branch's fleet of eleven lorries, vegetables and other transport costs have been turned into a credit of approximately £20,000. The storage floor has been running to capacity .•over the year. At the end of the 1944 fruit season the assembly floor handled 133 000 •crates of cabbage and 31,000 crates of carrots. The Branch has also stored penicillin for the Health Department. Christchurch Through the assembly store now being situated at Mandeville Road, Riccarton ■and the Division having its own private siding, the receiving and distribution of apples have been greatly facilitated and more economically handled. Local orchards have lost much fruit m storms, and that remaining is seriously marked, though without •essential damage. & T A 6 factory on this site began operations on 21st June, six months after the budding was begun. In addition to contracts with growers for vegetables for dehydrating parsnips and cabbages were contracted for and distributed throughout the bouth Island when and where needed or shipped to meet deficiencies in the North Island Eggs reached the Central Egg Floor, Ltd., in greater quantities, and, over and oje loc f 1 1 n^ d s, were sent on to Wellington. Pulp to supply the winter months was made m the flush. A depot was established at Ashburton and has supplied the West •toast. A Timaru floor has also been established, the surpluses from which, after local retailers have been supplied, have been pulped or directed to areas of need. The usual services m &wZter-distribution, honey receival and distribution, stock-feed distribution (Australian barley) and the allocation of lemons and imported fruit has taken place. Quotas of lemons, oranges, and bananas to shops and districts have been adjusted during the year after conferences with retailers. Dune din The marketing of apples and pears, the Division's biggest task in the Dunedin district, was rendered difficult at times by the nature of the Branch's premises. As military camps closed down, the Division undertook to dispose of locally the vegetables grown for their needs by Services' vegetable-production farms at Outram and Totara. With imported fruit the rationing-out system (to brokers and to shops) has been continuously amended and now works almost automatically. The Egg Marketing

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