FRUIT-GRADING.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 May 1923, Page 4

FRUIT-GRADING.

STANDARDISATION NEEDED. VIEWS OF DIRECTOR OF HORTICULTURE. WELLINGTON, May 5. ‘•There is no question that standardisation of fruit is necessary to put the industry on anything like a satisfactory basis,” was the opinion voiced by Mr .1. A. Campbell, Director of Horticulture, yesterday, when approached on the subject by a “’N.Z. Times” representative. The Nelson fruitgrowers, said Mr j Campbell, had come to recognise that j fact. Through the medium of a ! largely signed petition representing j three-fifths of the orchard area in the ! Nelson Province, they had approached i the department, asking for compulsory standardisation. The matter was : under consideration, and would b< ' seriously gone into; hut it was doubt- - i‘ul whether anything like the growers' | ] lion this year. The season was well 1 ■ advanced, and soon they would he | i dealing almost exclusively with cool | ! storage fruit. Should a scheme which j I offered possibilities ■ of solving the { : problem be devised, however, it was’ J i possible that it might he tried out in | | a moderate way in connection with the | fruit in the cool stores. | Spooling ot past efforts at staml- | ardisation, Mr Campbell said that I once before some little standardised | fruit hud been placed upon the mar'll hot, but without result. It had not j been advertised, people had not known } what they were buying, and it had ! ! been swamped by the other availablc- \ j fruitj! WHAT THE lII;VERS WANT. -j At present the growers seemed to be ] looking to advertising to relieve the 1 position, as was usual whenever there 1 tins too much of a commodity. Hut -f what they had to do was to devise “j some means wherein- the householder, J when he bought his fruit, would know 1 what he was getting. 3 Advertising applied only in a gem =| oral way. and to consider the position "j j was to come to the conclusion that “j standardisation was the basis of any ] advertising scheme, ft. was possible U to adveiitse anything if it could he 3 described enough, of course, but what j did "nppVs.” even "good apples” convey to a buyer? At present, a prospect ivo buyer, to protect himself, was 1 forced to come and examine the fruit, | and this reduced competition. It 1 meant that the country buyer was lit- | orally out of it. If people in town ! and country could compete on an j equal footing matters would he im- < proved.

PRESENT SYSTEM OPEN TO ARUSK.

Instancing the way in which the present system of sale laid itself open to abuse, Mr Campbell remarked tliat it might he known that on the local market potatoes were selling at from -CM to CIO par ton. It might, frequently would, he quite impossible to tell from a sample of potatoes whether a retailer paid £5 or CIO per ton for them, and in the event of a pttr-i-hiiscr complaining of poor quality in potatoes for which he may have pain IN or lAs per lumdredueight fa rate of Cl.'l per ton';, the dealer would have only to appeal to tJ if market reports, and though he might he sellin.-. produce for ithieli he paid Co pci ton at a Ci<i per ton rate no one could tell. i'u l . •opposing potatoes were lu be | quot'ol at nv first grade 'CIO. second ; grade 1 f 1n.,, third grade .Co. the : »i. e ii from the purchaser's point ot view v.i. old 1.0 much improved, and . there Mould he a check upon the sale. A M ( ( ESS ELSEWHERE, j Fruit grading had been carried into ; i tie l l in Canada and throughout the I l iiiled States. The method in Cwn- | lerbury win to penalise the grower it | In’s l arking Mil- noi according to ■standard. The grading inspector’Mould put on men to pick the fruit over and the grower would he charged with the cost of the labour. ••The past season ior fruit has not boon a good one fol' the growers, said Mr Campbell finally. “Though fruit lias been a high price in the simps, the growers have not been receiving anything like those prices.” Returning to the matter of the country buyer's position under a grading: scheme, he said:— "If a buyer in the country of •Fancy Grade Jonathans’ of a certain size knew what to expect, he would he able to sav whether lie got it. and would have some redress if lie did not get what lie wanted. Rut at the present time, if he buys Jonathans lie buys Jonathans, and lie has to take them as thev come.”