GKOWTH OF THE FKUIT TRADE. 
26S 
GROWTH OF THE FRUIT TRADE. 
By Mr. George Monro, V.M.H. 
[Read October 24, 1899.] 
I HAVE been asked by the Council to read a paper on the Growth of the 
Fruit Trade in England, and I do not think I should be far wrong in 
calling it the birth as well as growth, as up to recent years there has not 
been anything worth calling a trade, apart from oranges, which I may 
consider began to come to this country in quantity in 1860, when the 
import duty was taken off. For some years there was little else in any 
quantity, except our own orchard fruit, coming in as it ripened ; the 
remainder were what might be termed fancy articles, coming at irregular 
times in small quantities, and there was nothing like a regular supply of 
fruit all the year round until about twenty years ago, but from that time 
it has steadily increased. As the supply was uncertain and intermittent, it 
was of course very difficult to keep anything resembling a retail trade going, 
and fruit shops were very few. When I came into the trade in 1871 
there were only three fruiterers in the city, although several others used to 
take shops for two or three months only, commencing at the end of June, 
to sell strawberries, and keeping open as long as they could get anything 
to sell. The West End was much the same, the greengrocer of that 
time only buying choice fruit as he received orders, the mass of the trade 
being done in the Centre Avenue, Covent Garden. There were only one 
or two firms who attempted to do a fruit trade in the West End apart 
from greengrocery, and one of these was Messrs. Mart & Co., Oxford 
Street, and they did it in conjunction with their wine trade. 
As oranges were followed by American apples, and, later on, by bananas 
and pine-apples, so retail firms increased, and about 1880 the Haymarket 
Stores started a fruit department, and others quickly followed on, until at 
the present time there are fruit shops in every street, and it has become 
so regular an article of food that all first-class grocers find it necessary 
to have a green fruit department to keep pace with the times. 
After this hasty review I. will give some idea of the increase in certain 
fruits. 
Oranges^ I have already stated, began to come in quantity in 1860, and 
were sold in Pudding Lane on arrival from St. Michael's, Azores, Lisbon^ 
and Valencia, all places within easy reach of England. The St. Michael's 
were the best, but at the present time they have nearly died out, and 
their place has been taken by pine- apples ; but oranges now come from 
almost every part of the world, following each other all the year round. 
I have not many figures to bother you with, but, to indicate the 
proportion of fruit exported from Spain to England compared with other 
parts of the world, I find that in the winter of 1886-7, out of just over 
one and a half million boxes of fruit, principally oranges, shipped from 
Valencia, over one and a quarter million came to England ; and last 
winter, although now it is but one of many ports shipping fruit to this 
