326 The Commercial Apple Industry 



of conjecture. If the high quality apple approaches a 

 luxury for many persons of this country, it indeed repre- 

 sents a luxury for most foreign consumers. When trans- 

 portation, duty, insurance, interior freight and duty are 

 added to the original cost, the American apple can appeal 

 only to the well-to-do. Despite this, exportations to for- 

 eign markets in some years have approximated 10 per 

 cent of the total commercial apple crop of this country. 

 While the amount of export trade varies considerably with 

 the size of the crop and with general marketing conditions, 

 a study of the figures indicates a very considerable normal 

 increase in exportation of fresh apples in the past ten 

 years. 



The United Kingdom has always been the principal 

 export market, absorbing normally over 80 per cent of all 

 export trade. Australia and even oriental markets have 

 been studied more recently with the view to effecting 

 wider distribution of the apple crop. These latter markets 

 are as yet of little importance in comparison with the 

 heavy European demand. 



Business relations at long range are sometimes unsatis- 

 factory. But if this difficulty may be overcome, export 

 fields are promising. If this country, with its abundance 

 of fresh food stuffs, can absorb over twenty million barrels 

 of commercial apples annually, it seems reasonable that 

 foreign trade, particularly with thickly populated Euro- 

 pean countries, will afford an excellent outlet for at least 

 10 per cent or more of the total production. Such an 

 outlet will always relieve the strain on local markets and 

 will act as a safety valve for the excess supplies which 

 might otherwise glut domestic trade. 



Barreled and boxed apples were in general about equally 



