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Abstract: I have found it most difficult to analyse the attitude of the United Kingdom market merchant towards this subject of packaging. This is mainly because I believe the merchant's attitude, like that of the growers, can best be described as passive. Both these two groups have for many years accepted what the manufacturers have chosen to present to them virtually without comment. Comments that have been made on shape, weight, capacity and quality have generally been made as a reaction to proposed increases in price for the article concerned. It must be realized that the increasing competitiveness of mushroom production in this country has created pressures on the industry that have made producers turn in every direction to find short term cost savings. One of the first items to feel the impact of these pressures was the grower's market container, because it was at a time when the cost of the old traditional wood veneer chip was rising that board manufacturers saw an opportunity to make a significant break into a new market. Similar in dimensions, the new board container seemed acceptable at first, until spring and summer showed up that board did not have the breathing ability of veneer, and the mushroom sweated and cooked as well as acquiring blue smudges from the inner lining. Sophistication came by punching a few holes here and there, and changing the quality of the lining dye, but generally speaking little imagination, apart from the introduction of the shallow chip, has been displayed by anyone towards the production of a container that has the necessary qualities and attractiveness of appearance to do justice to a well-grown mushroom.
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