Apple exports get going
WITH the stone fruit season barely over orchardists had to jump right into the apple export season, which is this year fully three weeks earlier than last. The first steamer to load is the Hororata, now at Port Chalmers, and she will take about 6500 cases for London, 2600 cases for Montevideo and 400 cases for Hull. It was anticipated that the shipment would have been at least 3000 cases larger, but the succession of gales experienced in Central Otago, combined with hailstorms and sunscald, materially lessened the quota of early varieties available. The Montevideo portion of the shipment is part of the cost, insurance and freightinclusive sale of 50,000 cases of New Zealand apples made by the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation, of which Otago is supplying 10,000 cases. It is hoped that the result of this sale will restore the confidence of the South American buyers and enable future sales to be made on a free on board basis. Included in the Hororata shipment are a few hundred crates of Winter Nelis and Winter Cole pears. There is an excellent market in London for Otago pears, if they can be landed in sound order, which is proved by the fact that those sent last year from Otago realised 30 shillings per crate of less than 40 pounds. A few crates of pears are also being sent on trial to Montevideo, and the result will be watched with much interest. There is a marked improvement this year in the rate at which the fruit is being turned out of the various packing sheds, due to the experience gained in
the last two seasons and the installation of uptodate sizing machines. In many packing sheds will be found nailing presses and conveyors, and it is quite certain that with the adoption of uptodate methods much of the present reluctance to export on the part of some growers will disappear.