ENG-1970 — Page 94

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

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The main vegetable crops are white cabbage, flowering cabbage, lettuce, Chinese kale, radish and leaf mustard which grow all the year round. Considerable quantities of string bean, water spinach, cucumber, and many species of Chinese gourd are produced in summer and excellent quality tomato, cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, celery and watercress in winter. The main types of flowers are chrysanthemum and gladiolus which grow all the year round; dahlia, snapdragon, aster, carnation and rose are grown in winter, and ginger lily and lotus flower, in summer. Peach blossom is grown especially for the Chinese New Year. The area of land under vegetables and flowers has increased from 2,250 acres in 1954 to 9,760 acres in 1970.

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A wide range of fruit is grown on the lower hill slopes. The principal crops are lychee, longan, wampei, local lemon, orange, tangerine, Japanese apricot, guava, papaya, banana and pineapple. The acreage under orchard in 1954 was 952 acres. By 1970, the area so used was 1,540 acres.

Other field crops such as sweet potatoes, groundnut, millet, soy bean and sugar-cane are cultivated in drier land where irrigation is inadequate for planting rice and vegetables. The acreage under the rainfed crops was 2,130 acres in 1970 compared to 3,450 acres in 1954.

VEGETABLE MARKETING ORGANISATION

The Vegetable Marketing Organisation operates under the Agricultural Products (Marketing) Ordinance, which provides for a board to advise the Director of Marketing (currently the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries). The main objective of the organisation is to provide for orderly marketing of local crop produce by the collection and transportation of vegetables from the New Territories to the wholesale market in Kowloon, and the supervision of sales and financial transactions in the market. Revenue is obtained from a 10 per cent commission on sales of vegetables. The organisation is a non-profit making concern and seeks to obtain maximum returns for the growers by minimising their marketing costs.

During the year, 1,316,490 piculs of vegetables, valued at $66,400,891 were sold through the organisation. This amounted