Palestine’s present prosperity is not an artificial boom likely to collapse at any moment, but rests upon the solid foundations of the sound development of Palestine agriculture, idustry and commerce latterly augmented by German refugees with capital resources and industrial training and experience, it was stated at a meeting of the American Economic Committee for Palestine held last night at the Park Royal Hotel, by Emanuel Neumann, Former member of the world Zionist Executive, who recently returned from Palestine.
“There is a certain amount of inflation and speculation in certain types of rea estate,” said Mr. Neumann, “which is induced by the abnormal demand arising from the large immigration, but at bottom Palestine’s prosperity rests upon solid foundations and that is the opinion of the most competent business men and economists in Palestine today.
“There has been much expansion in the orange industry, the increased shipments of oranges every year bringing money into the country. The exportation of citrus fruits this year will come to about five and one-half million cases, and will increase during the next three or four years at upprozimately a million cases perannum
“thereafter there is going to be a jump when the large number of orange groves planted in the last three or four years will bear fruit, so that between 1940 and 1942 the crop will probably exceed 20 million cases. thus palestine is rapidly becoming one of the most important orange producing countries in the world. The growers as weel as the government are alive to the problem of marketing the increasing crops, and this year for the first time a substantial appropriation has been made by the government for advertising the Jaffa orange in European markets.
“American oranges do not seriously conflict with the sale of the Palestine orange because they are sold at different seasons of the year. The only substantial competitor is the Spanish orange, but Spain cannot increase its output appreciatively because all the soil suitable for citrus cultivation there is already being exploited. Careful calculations which have been made indicate that even if there should be a moderate drop in prices, the orange plantations will still pay.”
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