Fruit Growers Want Fuel Restrictions Lifted
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WISBECH and Cambridge fruit VI' growers decided at a meeting, last week, to warn the Minister of Food that unless petrol restrictions be lifted to facilitate the transport of plums from growers to the markets, some of this season's bumper crop—the heaviest for years—will be wasted.
Fruit-trade circles quote special reasons why railway transport is not quick enough to meet the situation. It is pointed out that growers are short of labour, whilst the supply of baskets for the carriage of the fruit is put at about only half the pre-war quantity.
A Leeds fruit merchant, who is interested in a 300-acre Cambridgeshire fruit farm, stated " If we can have petrol wa can pick fruit until 10 p.m.; send the fruit by road through the night, and have the empties back next day. In the past rail transport has involved a two-day journey for the fruit to the destination, and as long as a five-day return for the empties—seven days in all for the baskets. With only half the pre-war number of baskets, we must have a quicker turn-round!'