THE MARKETING OF FRUIT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 803, 28 April 1910, Page 10

THE MARKETING OF FRUIT.

, ' HAWKE'S BAY PROPOSALS. 'A number of interesting points in con- .' nection with .the' lTuit . maustry'.' were -.touched on at.a'meeting ol';.'orcnardißtß' " held in Hastings recently :to discuss I '.-'a proposal for the erection" of'/a cool'store., Mr. W.. Smith pointed out that the Hawke's Bay Fhutgirowers! Association had started witli ss. subscriptions and this year the secretary had to pay .'over £2(J{)O for 140,000 fruit pases, representing ho fewer than. 1750' ■ tons of fruit. The capital, required-;for, the cool stores, jam and canning factories was large, but tho . business., they were on top of was a big business, and ' they must have a big capital to handlo it-properly. Mr. P: Cook said they, would require •••fc capital of £75,000, but it would not bo necessity to call up all,-this, money ' at once. The system now'used in the handling of'fruit was useless, as'they saw in the papers lately there was ao check on the agents, and'the growers did. not know.'wheth'er their fruit sold for 2s.' 6d. or 55.. a: case. They wanted a strong company with sufficient capital ■to handle the fruit (fresh, canned, and in-jam) until it reached the consumer. Tire. middleman wanted all the profits: He wanted twice and three times as j much as the grower, who had worked .'■■■ for twelve months to. produce the fruit . The growers wanted to get into direct touch with the consumer, and they must bavo a beginning and . grow as, the Hawko's Bay Company had done, which, from a srcall. b'egin- ■' nine, grew into the largest-organisation .of its kind iii the 'Dominion. . They should develop , and spread their operations until, they had their own shops throughout the Pominion. . Mr. A. H. Russell thought: that instead of £75,000 they .would require • £120,000, £75,000'of'which would have to be called up at once, as -their experience at Friniloy was that they had to pay for everything in advance, in putting up ,fmit3 he pointed out the cost to tho company would-be, say,' Id. ' per pound for the fruit,- sugar Id., tins and labour 2d., and gross profits Id., making a.total of sd. For this fid. they , would get first-class fruit. Eventually, a committee was appointed to go into the whole matter. '