Bananas for Western Canada.

As a result of an experimental ship ment of bananas to Vancouver last year, the Fiji Department of Agricul ture has made arrangements for twelve further trial shipments The first will be made on May 6, and the bananas will thus arrive in Vancouver in sum mer weather.

In theory, there is no reason why Fiji should not supply the requirements of Western Canada, which at present draws its supplies through the United Fruit Co. of America from South America. The Canadian market is a very large one, but it is also a quality market. Canadians are wealthy, and will only have the best.

We in Fiji must realise that we have little chance of competing with the United Fruit Co., in view of the hap hazard manner in which our bananas are grown. The really good fruit comes by cutter from the outlying islands of the Group, and cannot avoid damage through rough handling.

The “Fiji Times and Herald” put the position very aptly when it wrote: “Not only the difficulties of carriage must be remembered, but also of mar keting; bearing in mind, particularly, the strength of the competition that will have to be faced.

“And certainly not the least of our difficulties is that confronting the De partment of Agriculture in its task of educating the growers of Fiji up to the realisation that bunches of bananas must be handled with the care that would be given if each banana was an egg.

“But difficulties are made to be over come, and we know of very few suc cessful ventures which were not accom panied by their full share of natural difficulties.”

EDITORIAL NOTE: This is news of first-rate importance. The sugar concession speaks for it self —it means the distribution in Fiji of large quantities of new money. But the banana de velopment, to our mind, is of much greater im portance. New trade got by tariffs and bonuses is fundamentally unsound, and is only justified if it is regarded as a temporary expedient.

A new market for Fijian bananas in Canada does not come into that category—it is a sign of enterprise and healthy growth. As to its signifi cance-look at the map! There in the Central Pacific are Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, capable of producing huge supplies of the world’s best bananas, but (since Australia foolishly closed her doors) with only the New Zealand banana market available to them. It has been as sumed that, so far as bananas are concerned, the North American market is too far away and too hostile; but Fiji’s enterprise shows that that is not so. It is possible to land the fruit in Vancouver in good condition; and it may be taken as certain that, in the new spirit of British reciprocity, Canada will as readily buy the products of Fiji as the products of Central America.

Hitherto, the enormous banana-growing pos sibilities of the Central Pacific have been lim ited by a restricted market : the exploitation of the West Canadian market changes the Fijian planters’ outlook to a degree that probably they do not yet realise. The difficulty about hand ling and packing is not an insurmountable one —it is mostly a matter of education and organ isation. This is a much smaller obstacle than the Levuana pest—and the Fijian officials con quered that.