Notes. 203 



Currants: The Union's Deficient Production. 



Are the climatic and economic conditions of Australia so mucL 

 more favourable than ours that that country is able to g-row currants 

 and transport the product thousands of miles by land and .'ea to tlie 

 heart of the Union in successful competition with the locally u'rown 

 article? We think not, yet the Customs returns reveal the fact that 

 the great bulk of the Union's supply of currants, a commodity o; 

 general and constant use, is obtained from Australia. The total 

 quantity of currants recently imported into the Unioa was as 

 follows : — 



1918 179,819 lb. Value £5891. 



1919 1,214,914 1b. Value £39,463. 



Against these importations must be shown the quantity of the 

 imported article sent out of the Union, mostly to adjacent territories 

 such as South- West Protectorate, Portuguese East Africa, British 

 East Africa, etc., amounting to 8143 lb. in 1918, and 13,674 lb. in 

 1919. Deducting these re-exported quantities, we find that the net 

 importations into the Union representing our consumption of the 

 imported cunrant was in 1918, 171,676 lb., valued at £5496; and in 

 1919, 1,201,240 lb., valued at £38,756. 



We live in a country bountifully endowed by nature to raise the 

 produce of the vine, yet our farmers are apparently content to lose a 

 market at their doors worth nearly £40,000 in 1919, while at the same 

 time our trade in currants with adjacent markets, which are surely 

 the natural outlet for our own product, is largely met by re-exporting 

 the imported article. 



Our local production, and that not of tbe best variety of currant, 

 is small. The 1919 census shows that for the year ended xlpril, 1919, 

 the output was 68,600 lb. At the valuation placed on our exports of 

 locally grown currants, which is negligible in quantity, our 1918-19 

 production of currants was worth about £5000. 



These figures will enable us to gauge the present dimensions of 

 our market. The matter is worth the consideration of those 

 sufficiently enterprising to take the opportunity of reaping the benefit 

 of a local market for currants which is now supplied by a country 

 thousands of miles distant. But a change in our methods is necessary 

 before this can be attained. Our local production is almost 

 entirely from what is known as the South African currant, whilst the 

 article of commerce is obtained from the Zante or Grecian vine. 

 This is the vine grown in Australia. It is a far heavier bearer than 

 our small South African currant. 



We make the suggestion, therefore, that a profitable enterprise 

 in currant growing* for the markets of the Union and adjacent terri- 

 tories, at least, awaits the grower in those parts suitable for the 

 cultivation of the Zante currant vine. The vine is being propagated 

 at this Department's Viticultural Experiment Station at Paarl, and 

 cuttings are available for those wishing to take up currant culture. 

 The Zante vine cultivation does not call for any special treatment, 

 although it may be mentioned that in order to produce heavy crops 

 it requires cincturing. 



