PRESERVED FRUITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1921, Page 7

PRESERVED FRUITS.

BAD OUTLOOK FOR AUSTRALIA. By Telegraph.—Press Assn —Copyright, London, March 4. English merchants are declining to consider forward shipments of Australian canned fruits at any price under existing conditions. According to a prominent Australian importer small sales are taking place locally at about ten shillings from the warshouse, equivalent to under half the 1920 opening price. In many instances half the contents are unopened as unfit for human consumption. Regarding jams varieties costing 15s are offering at 6s a dozen with no sales. Saleable varieties are detrimentally affected by the disgraceful getup and bad condition of tins. Meanwhile the Queensland Agency are unable to dispose of pines for the reason that there is no coring and they are not properly sliced or packed. Suitable fruit such as Queensland pine, cost higher than Hawaiian. Mr. Ashbolt, partner of Jones and Company, confirms Mr. Hunter’s attack on canning on February 21. England, he says, will not buy the Australian article. Australian agents are actually compelled to sell Californian products owing to the unpopularity of Australian. California has ten grades, Australia only sometimes two. He makes no reference to the size of the fruit, or its ripeness and color. 'He attributes the undue percentage of puffed and blown tins to not being thoroughly boiled in Australia, and bacteria germinating during the passage in the tropics.