Fiji’s Young

Industry

Pineapple-Canning Making Steady Progress, in Accordance With C.S.R. Plans

VISITORS to Fiji, making the tour of Viti Levu by the circum-insular road, have been interested to see at Nadi considerable areas of pineapples, contrasting with the sugar-cane crops which form the main feature of the landscape for a distance of 140 miles along the northern and western coasts.

These pineapple fields are the result of the development of the canning indus try by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co.

Ltd., which in 1936 purchased the assets of the West Coast Pines Ltd. The lat ter company had ceased operations some years earlier.

Development was at first hampered, to some extent, by the lack of planting material in the Colony, due to the aban donment of cultivation of existing fields.

However, the shortage of seed has now been overcome. Large areas were planted by the C.S.R. Co. in 1939 —these are the fields which are seen from the road —and Indian leaseholders have been able to obtain plants from the company, which will in due course purchase from them the mature fruit. Rapid exten sion of the area under pineapples is expected.

Comprehensive experiments are being conducted in order to decide the meth ods of manuring, spacing of plants and time of planting, best suited to Fiji

conditions. The object of cultivation is to produce fruit of an even size, and of a shape suitable for canning, with a minimum of waste.

In Hawaii, where the cultivation of pineapples for canning is now a tre mendous industry, the rows are planted through strips of mulch paper, the function of which is to conserve soil moisture and minimise weeding. This procedure is under trial at Nadi, but results are not yet available.

Pineapples mature in Fiji at two per iods of the year, a minor crop about June and a major one about December.

The fruit grown At Nadi is transported by motor lorries to Lautoka, about 17 miles distant, where a modern canning plant has been installed, which com menced operations towards the end of 1938.

At this cannery slices, fingers, crushed pineapple and juice are packed, and the products are sold in New Zealand and England. Rather surprisingly, there is some demand for canned pineapple in Fiji, despite the availability of the fresh fruit.

Some of the advantages which we see in the resuscitation of the pineapple industry in Fiji are:— It will provide an outlet for the increasing Fijian and Indian peasan try, all of whom cannot be absorbed in the sugar industry.

It will bring about cultivation areas of land which are suitable for pine apples, but not for cane and other crops.

The cannery provides seasonal em ployment for local girls, and other classes of labour.

The writer, when on a visit to Fiji about six years ago. was much impressed with the potentialities of the pineapple industry in the Colony, and looks for ward, on his succeeding visits, to seeing its sound and steady growth. There is no speculation about it. Everything has been investigated and planned by the powerful and efficient C.S.R. Co., and in ten years’ time, this will be among the major industries of prosperous Fiji.

(See also article on page 59.)