GREEN STRAWBERRIES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 6

GREEN STRAWBERRIES

' PUBLIC TAKEN IN The long suffering public is again being taken in now that new season's strawberries have reached the market. Ingenious packing, or palpable negligence, is allowing immature and inferior sized fruit of this description to be pawned off at prices ranging from Is lOd in some cases up to 2s (id. Local retailers, although they are practically powerless in tho matter, have received numerous complaints about this sort of deception. The fault appears to lie at the door of a few unscrupulous growers in Auckland and elsewhere, who it would seem are filling their strawberry containers with large sized berries on top to attract the eye, and with an inferior grade article on tlie bottom, thus reoeiving the benefit of the peak juices ruling. Although the growers may jwssiblv be to blame in the matter, consumers who have lodged complaints and have been hoaxed by the luscious fruit on the top of the containers, consider that the distributors have an obvious duty to see that the fruit thev supply to retailers is of the first quality, and they maintain that they should Thero are regulations enforced which compel growers of other fruits to provide the public with a good article, also apply in the case of the strawberry growers.