Passion-Fruit Pulp

Opportunity for Profitable Industry Solving Norfolk Island’s Problem

Written for The Pacific Islands Monthly by Mr. Frank L. Edwards, Secretary of the Chamber of Manufactures of N.S.W.

“'THERE are tons and tons and countless tons of passion-fruit ripening upon Norfolk Island dur ing the months of December, January and February . . . and half of it goes to waste. . . . We lose half of our fruit each season,” writes your Norfolk Island corres pondent, in last issue.

This tale of waste is particularly galling just now in the midst of times so hard that actual cases of starvation are reported in the press. At the present moment (early January) while the Nor folk Island passion fruit rots, some of it is actually selling in Sydney stalls at a penny each.

Only this week, too, an American recently returned to Sydney after a trip to U.S.A., mainly to enquire about pas sion fruit pulp marketing possibilities— an eager would-be agent abroad for Australian canned passion fruit pulp could he but get it —has called upon me and given a dazzling estimate of the huge quantities of pulp which it should be possible for us to dispose of in U.S.A. were we able to provide a continuous and uniform supply of the product attractively canned and packed, accord ing to standards acceptable to the buyers.

The U.S.A. Market

“I consulted the providoring manag ers of a big chain of hotels,” he said.

“Some of these hotels feed five and six thousand people during the one meal hour.

“Providers who cater on such a tre mendous scale are naturally agog to find new foods and new flavours for a clientele that is eager and willing to pay for them, but all I could get from them were promises that they would probably take several tons as a ‘try out.’ Because of the uncertainty of supplies, they were not going to com mit themselves.

“To secure large scale distribution through the various chains of hotels and large grocery wholesale houses, it will be necessary to satisfy their exact ing specifications as to uniformity of product and to give a definite assurance as to supply.

“It is not an uncommon practice—in fact, it is the rule—for intending big buyers to see the factory and its man agement and to follow out the whole of its processes: in the case of food stuffs from the time the seed is planted till the finished article is packed and placed on the freight cars.

“The Sun-Kist Orange people specify how the crop is to be cultivated, irri gated, sprayed, pruned, picked and packed. The handling of passion-fruit will have to come up to the same rigid specifications if it is to succeed in the American market.”

It is a fact, strange but true, that passion-fruit growing has not yet been successful in any but mere experi mental plots in U.S.A. This fruit which grows wild on the Australian coast and probably in many of the Pacific Islands, makes but poor res ponse to the most devoted attention in many districts in America. Here, surely, is our chance.

Co-Operation Of Growers

Necessary

No technical difficulties hinder our pulping and preserving the fruit; in deed, manufacturers have assured me that the only deterrent to their passion-fruit preserving efforts on a scale larger than hitherto attempted has been the uncertainty of adequate supplies. Passion-fruit has been grown mainly with an eye to its sale as fresh fruit, and the pulp manufacturer has been expected to develop an industry on what is practically an unwilling source of supply. Growers only sell to him “faute de mieux,” when fancy prices in the city markets are no more.

It is not to be expected that big manufacturing business will result until such time as the growers recognise that they are producing not for the fruit shop but for the cannery.

Half-way measures will get us no where if this is to be developed as one of the primary industries of Australia.

Given the quantities and due care in processing, there appear to be no reasons why passion-fruit should not soon be another exportable commodity.

Basing one’s judgment on the state ments of your correspondent, it would seem that now is the time for a more securely-based manufacturing effort, and as a step towards helping in the problem of the Norfolk Island growers, I have forwarded to each of my mem bers likely to be interested in it, a copy of your correspondent’s statement on this subject, and in addition I have sent copies to my colleagues, the Secretaries of the Chambers of Manufactures in each of the other States.

But why don’t the Norfolk Island growers arrange with an experienced manufacturer, who is a good technic ian, to visit them and advise them after an examination of their problem qn the spot? The right man could be induced to make the trip, and he would take with him from the mainland a knowledge of marketing and of co operative effort, both of which are essential to the success of the Islanders’ enterprise.