Taranaki Lemons May Now be Sold On Local Market

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1942, Page 2

Taranaki Lemons May Now be Sold On Local Market

Privilege extended to grdwers in province. Taranaki-grown lemons arfe to be offered to the retail trade through the Internal Marketing Division and will be sold at a fixed price. A depot for them is to be opened at New Plymouth almost immediately. This will remove a severe discouragement under which growers in the province have laboured since 1939. It was then that the Government took over the marketing of lemons in the Dominion and stopped Taranaki growers from selling in their local market. They were obliged to send their fruit to Wellington, but it was found that the comparatively small number of trees in the province did not produce enough to make the sending worth while. Consequently growers limited their business to "gate sales.'!K""\-% with the result that many of them lost interest and neglected their trees. Hastings and Nelson districts were affected similarly to Taranaki, and the Wellington depot was closed soon after war was declared because there was insufficient need for it In the meantime Nelson and Hastings were permitted to cell on their local markets, and it is this privilege that has now been extended to Taranaki growers. It is probably not generally known that Taranaki has such a primary industry as lemon growing for commercial purposes. There are 30 growers registered with the Department of Agriculture, most of them being around New Plymouth and in the coastal districts. Their citrus orchards range from two trees to 50, but between them they can muster 427 trees producing 934 cases in a season. Increased Production. Mr. J. D. Carolin, orchard instructor stationed at New Plymouth, believes this ' production can be increased if greater care is bestowed on the trees. It is as a result of his negotiations with the Internal Marketing Division that restrictions on local growers have been lifted and they are to send their fruit to a depot appointed by the division for release at a fixed price to New Plymouth retailers. Taranaki lemons are not sufficient in quantity completely to supply the New Plymouth market, which relies on Tauranga for- its main supplies, but their release will go a long way towards avoiding periodic shortages. According to Mr. Carolin the quality of Taranaki lemons is good when the fruit is picked at the right stage— when the yellow is beginling to show through the green— and :ured correctly before packihg. Growers will be expected to pick, cure, grade and pack the fruit intp standard

cases and deliver them to the New Plymouth depot. Mr. Carolin explained yesterday that the main picking is in June, July and August, with a second picking from January to March. Prices from August to December will be 5s Id a standard case for fruit graded "fancy" and 4s 6d for "commercial," and 6s 6d and 5s 4id respectively from January to March, all prices having 4s a case added for curing, sizing, packing and delivery to the depot.