A complaint against competition offered the Florida citrus industry through the import of Jaffa oranges grown in Israel was voiced here today by W. C. Pedersen, president of the Waverly Growers Cooperative.
In a statement in his organization’s publication, regarding the arrival in New York last month of the first shipment of Jaffa oranges, he stated that the duty on imported oranges was so small that foreign shippers are “easily able to sell them in competition with fruit produced in the United States.” The U.S.A., he said, has helped establish the Israeli fruit industry by financing and other aid “above what it does for the United States fruit growers.”
“We have an over-abundance of fine Valencia oranges to market this year in Florida,” he declared, “and it would seem there is little room for imports in the United States. Florida may well look for trouble in the United States markets if we continue to raise wages for our citrus labor and pay more for shipping materials and grove supplies over what is paid by other countries.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
