Survey Of Bananas For
p. 95 · Read in the full issue
Nz Market
MR. ROSS WALKER, manager of Fruit Distributors Ltd. (which purchase the entire Fiji banana crop for distribution in New Zea land) made a tour of possible banana-growing areas on Gau, Koro and Nairai islands, east of Viti Levu, early March.
Mr. Walker said, however, he was not optimistic as to possibilities there —freightage from these islands to Suva might make the project unpayable. Though freight would be lower by shipping to Levuka it seemed doubtful whether the islands could provide a quantity sufficient to warrant a ship making a special call at Levuka.
Other areas that might be con sidered, and which had in former years produced large crops were Savusavu Bay (on Vanua Levu) and the Sigatoka district of Viti Levu.
The matter was under considera tion.
Mr. Walker noted that the system of grading in Western Samoa is better than that of Fiji. In Samoa, there is only one packing station, and fruit once rejected, cannot be re-sorted and repacked. There, If inferior fruit is found in a case arriving from a plantation, the lot is condemned, sold locally at 1/- per case, and the owner fined one shilling per condemned case. In Fiji, with many local pack ing points, the same close control cannot be kept on packed fruit.