Products Of The South Seas

New Low Level Price for Copra

THE Unilever Combine, operating on a market that is enormously over-supplied, has been able to bring the price of copra down to a new low level, during the past fortnight. The latest quotation is appalling, and rep resents a definite loss for the major ity of coconut planters. The only ray of sunshine, so far as the South Seas are concerned, is that producers in Papua, New Guinea and the Solomons are getting the benefit of the depressed Australian exchange.

Although everyone has known that the buyers are completely in control of the market, with all that that means,

cue latest quote for copra has given most students of the market some thing of a shock. Experts, discussing copra prospects with the editor of this journal in London in January, were quite sure that “there is no room under the present quotation.” But since then, the average price has fallen by from 20/- to 30/- per ton!

The conditions which have brought about this state of affairs —particular ly the enormous flood of whale oil— have been fully discussed in the last two issues of this Monthly; and fur ther information on the same subject is given in the article of pages 1 and 2.