Apples

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23962, 1 June 1943, Page 4

Apples

Although rather more than 1,000,000 cases of apples will be available for the public during the next seven months, t against 600,000 normally, before the war, the Minister of Marketing announced at the end of the week that their release will be controlled to make them last. The price of apples has been stabilised, there is plenty of money to spend, imported fruit is scarce, and, at the present rate of consumption, there would be no apples left after three or four months. The decision is of course a wise one, which seems to disclose some change in the Internal Marketing Division’s views about the market for apples. In the 19-12 season, the division sluggishly made up its mind that a great quantity of Canterbury apples grassed by a gale could not be marketed on any conditions of price, period, or classification, because their sale would damage that of the apples held by the division. This, although Canterbury at that time was short of apples, and was being supplied from Nelson! The policy behind the deoision was illuminated in the annual report of the Marketing Department, which conclusively proved that New Zealanders could not be driven or tempted to eat more than so many cases of apples a month. The division had the whole graded crop on its hands, and supply would be greater than demand. Nevertheless, store apples did not last till the new ones came in. The division was told that, as vegetables were scarce and dear, more apples would be eaten; that, as bananas, oranges, and pineapples were rarely to be had, more apples would be eaten; and that, as th£ consumer’s pocket

was full of cash, more apples would be eaten. The division did not believe any of this. But the Minister of Marketing repeats it all now. The consumer has learned to eat more apples, and the division has learned to admit that he can and will, and to see why. But the consumer learned faster than the division.