WORLD APPLE TRADE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22506, 14 September 1938, Page 15

WORLD APPLE TRADE

COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY tiaou ona own coEBESPOMDwrr.) LONDON, July 23. Great Britain grows nearly, half the quantity of apples consumed by hexpeople, the Empire supplies more-than one-third, and foreign countries—chiefly the United States—just more than a tenth. From 1934 to 1937, New Zealand’s contribution has averaged 3,1 per cent. (895,000 bushels); ten years previously it was only .3 per cent. The biggest -single supplier is Canada, which is responsible for slightly more than one-flfth of Great Britain’s total supply. These facts have been compiled by the Imperial Economic Committee and are contained in its comprehensive survey of the production of and trade in apples and pears, just published. Apples and pears, it is stated, are probably grown more widely than any other fruits. As far as can be estimated, the number of apple and pear trees in the world at present is something like 600,000,000, yielding an average of some 500,000,000 to 600,000,000 bushels of apples, and 125,000,000 to 150.000. bushels of pears a year. This total of apple trees, however, is less than before the war, but the output has been maintained. This is attributed mainly to the change from ordinary farm cultivation to more specialised production. The main effect of this change has been a general improvement in culture, preparation, and marketing. Wastage has been reduced by cold and gas storage. The chief producer of dessert and cooking apples is the United States, with France, Germany, Russia. Poland, and Switzerland ranking as the next most important. Apple production in the United Kingdom and the Dominions is small compared with that of the United States and some European countries. The total Empire production probably accounts for less than 10 per cent, of the world total. Nevertheless, Empire countries have become increasingly important since the war, and in the years 1934-37 produced, on the approximately 48,000,000 bushels a year, compared with about 36,000,000 bushels in 1924-28. In the last four years, the annual production of apples in the United Kingdom averaged about 18.000. bushels, the Canadian commercial crop was slightly more than 14.000. bushels, and the Australian about 10,000,000. . . . .. The United Kingdom is by far the largest importer of apples, and in recent years has taken more than a third, and occasionally as much as a half, of the world imports. The only other considerable market is Germany. Imports into the United Kingdom have doubled since immediately before the war, and are about half as big again as they were in the five years immediately preceding 1914. Home-grown fruit normally represents rather more than 40 per cent, of total supplies of dessert and cooking apples for domestic consumption. Until recent years, four-fifths of the imports came from Canada and the Uni* ted States, but lately that proportion has declined, following greater supplies from New Zealand and Australia Recently Canada has been the chief supplying country, and Australia has tended to displace America as the second most important source.