18 JANUARY 1935, Page 6

A good example of the way in which individual tastes

affect trade is revealed in some figures an economist of exploratory tendencies has just given me. Investigating the consumption of citrus fruits (mainly, of course, oranges and lemons) he finds that 70 are eaten per head' of the population' in Great Britain, and one for every 2.5 of the populatibn- in Poland. I say, eaten, but no' doubt a large proportion are actually drunk, in the form of lemonade and other soft drinks. Poland, moreover, so far as I know, has never acquired the marmalade taste. If Poles took merely to 'eating oranges in cinemas the effect on the trade returns of Palestine and Brazil and California would be substantial.

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