- 5 



high in mineral and food reserves. Such plants will really "take off" and gr 



ow. 



Remember that good plants mean plants free of all disease, not just virus- 

 free. Be especially careful not to bring red stele into your bed. Also, be 

 fussy about the size and vigor of the plants. The free plants obtained from a 

 neighbor may not be so cheap in the long run. 



I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



APPLE MARKETING OUTLOOK 



Fred Perkins 

 Department of Agricultural 

 Economics and Marketing 

 Rutgers 



--Continuation of the article that appeared in the March issue of Fruit Notes in 

 which Fred Perkins analyzes the factors that affect the future of the apple industry. 



" Packaging Trends 



In recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the sales 

 of fresh prepackaged fruit and vegetables in the U.S. Today, consumer 

 packages must have eye appeal. They must provide for convenience, be 

 reasonable in cost and give greater confidence in the quality and fresh- 

 ness of the contents. 



The most widely used consumer package for apples is the polyethylene 

 bag. It is estimated that from 35 to 45 per cent of all apples are sold 

 at retail prepackaged in bags. Medium to large size apples, however, do 

 not fit well into 3 to 5 pound capacity bags--further, there is little 

 protection afforded to these larger apples from bruising. 



Especially promising, for display and protection, are the newly 

 developed shrinkable films now used widely on some commodities and on 

 a test basis for others. (These over-wrapped packages usually hold 

 from 6 to 8 apples) . 



Let's take a look at the shrink film situation for apples. There 

 is general agreement that volume production offered by shrink film opera- 

 tions offers real potentialities of reducing the cost of packing apples 

 in consumer trays over former techniques and that bruising, especially 

 to the larger sized and easily bruised apples, is substantially reduced 

 over bagging by using consumer tray packs. 



With twenty or more suppliers of equipment and various films, how- 

 ever, the job of selecting the best product or material to use becomes 

 difficult. Perhaps the best general concensus of opinion is that no 

 one product now on the market is highly recommended by all users (not 



