FRUIT GROWING

Hokitika Guardian, 9 July 1932, Page 6

FRUIT GROWING

MAGNITUDE OF INDUSTEY.

WELLINGTON. July 4

The fruitgrowing industry of New Zealand is one of greater magnitude tha/t most people realise, as a prospect into statistics reveals, and its probable state of expansion, provided oversqp. markets are maintained by a more vigilant attitude in the matter of precautions against the introduction of orchard pests, has been variously/estimated by experts at a very high figure. v •/; To-day in New Zealand the annual return to growers of fruit is about £2,ooo,ooo—an estimate made in round figures—from an area totalling about 25,000 acres. That gives an average return of £BO per acre! And like all other primary industries orchard work absorbs quite‘a lot of labour—mostly seasonal employees. In Nelson district in a year as many as 6000 hands have been employed during the picking . season, which extends from about February to the end of May. The total number of tax-paying orchardistg with over two acres of land is 3500.

For some .years there has been little increase in the .amount of land held for fruitgrowing purposes, although intensive, cultivation has increased the total production, and it is probable that the production from the present areas will still further increase. With the certainty of markets, however, the area of orchards would increase and as a means of stimulating industry such an expansion in area and the placing of people on holdings would mean great help to the unemployment problem.' Orctiardists provide employment for men when planting and breaking up the land in the winter and others who would indirectly benefit from stimulation of the fruit industry would be the sawmillers, the transport businesses, and also the shipping trade. ' PROBABLE PRODUCTION It is estimated reliably that the increased production from the present areas in a few years’ will reach oyer 2,000,000 cases of exportable surplus. Such expansion is dependent on the Dominion’s ability to obtain certain overseas market and maintain them by taking every possible precaution to maintain a clean sheet as far as the major diseases and insect pests affecting export trade are concerned. Such precautions do not appear to have been sufficiently exhaustive in the pfist and the lethargic attitude towards diseases and pests, even in the face of past experiences, is more than a little surprising. During the past few years a feature of New Zealand’s export trade in apples and pqarsjias been the, tendency to certain countries either to restrict or place an embargo on fruit from New Zealand. As far as the two fruits mentioned are concerned the exceptions to that statement are Belgium and Brazil. In the latter country the former duty of 4s per case which ruled for years has been removed. New Zealand now competes there on an equal basis with the .United States.