of C.I. Fruit Industry

Government Control of C.I. Fruit Industry How System Has Worked During First Year

From Our Own Correspondent

Rarotonga, Nov. 23.

!/■ EEN disappointment was felt in Atiu, Mauke, and Aitutaki that the Hau reiki which called here on November 11 to pick up tomatoes did not proceed to the Southern Cook Group, where a large percentage of the orange crop is still unpicked. The Administration, after en quiry into the condition of the fruit, believed that it would have suffered a substantial loss through sending it to N.Z. and preferred not to take such a risk.

Local traders, however, were quick to point out that when they handled the fruit, their most profitable shipments were often in October and November.

They declared that at no time had they ever permitted so heavy a proportion of the crop to remain unsold as had oc curred in the Lower Group this season.

With the close of the first year of Government control, the pros and cons of the whole scheme are being hotly debated and form the main topic of local conversation. Opinion among European n’anters is almost unanimous that for those who have invested capital in the care and development of plantations, the present system has operated detrimen

tally? by reducing all fruit to a general level, of which the common denominator is the average quality of native-grown and packed produce.

On the other hand, to native growers, on rentless plantations where trees are wild and cultivation amounts to little more than harvesting the crop when ripe, the system has undoubtedly proved beneficial, insomuch as the prices received show a higher average than those received dur ing the previous year or two.

The larger trading firms—formerly the principal fruit exporters have lost on the deal, since it is no longer expedient nor wise for them to conduct extensive credit operations, these having been se cured by their virtual monopoly of ship ping space and the necessity for growers to ship through them. A great deal of adverse criticism has been directed against the credit system here, and with out doubt there have been instances where it has been abused and growers exploited. Nevertheless, without some practical substitute, natives, particularly those in the outer islands, will find them selves hard put to it to weather the long months of the hurricane season, when no fruit is shipped, and in the past each firm “carried” its own customers.

Small independent traders reaping perhaps where they did not strictly sow —have garnered a rich harvest from the many thousands of bright new half crowns which have flowed in a silver stream from the Fruit Department’s offices. Natives, in common with others, finding themselves with real money in their pockets, have discovered it conveni ent to “forget” unpaid accounts and the small independent trader has never been addicted to the credit system!

In Rarotonga, orange shipments for the season decreased by 17,000 cases com pared with 1936, only 12,000 having been exported. The Group total of 68,712 also shows a decrease of 6,165 cases over last year’s figures.

With the exception of the first ship ment by the Limerick, on which the Government paid only 2/6 a case, extra payments have either already been made or are expected on the five other ship ments. Payments, over and above the guaranteed minimum of half-a-crown, have been respectively 1/-, 1/6, and 1/-, with two further payments anticipated shortly.