Fruit Imports A very thorough pamphlet has been issued from
Oxford on the vexed subject of " the planning of British Food Imports." Up to 1927 we imported roughly £410,000,000 worth of food or, again roughly, 62 per cent, of our needs. This percentage has
since been reduced to 53 per cent., but the cause, it is sug- gested, was due to a reduction in total consumption as well as to other and more political causes. I refer to the pamphlet, however, not for the sake of the general conclusion, but to emphasize one detail that fits exactly with views expressed to me by one of our greatest growers of fruit. He holds that the greatly increased consumption of fruit (by which the so-called vegetarians are elated) is due to the provision of fruit continuously all the year. He believes that the imports of fruit are the direct cause of the extension of the fruit area in England—and this is striking. The pamphlet, more obscurely, takes the same view. The final conclusion is as follows :
" It follows, therefore, that planning must not only consider total supplies but also the seasonal nature of production and of receipts from alternative sources."
It is within my knowledge that the potato growers of south Lincolnshire are urgent on this point. Well-timed imports are to their advantage.
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