Samoan Products.

Prices Weaken for Copra, Bananas and Cocoa.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Apia, May 20.

THE copra price is down again, about £4/10/- per ton being paid at present to the Samoan native producer.

The native is further hit by the drop in prices for Samoan and other bananas in the New Zealand markets.

For the next “Maui Pomare” shipment, only 2/- per case will be paid for bananas, which price is unprofitable to the European producer and not very attractive to the native.

Outlying districts of Upolu and Savaii, with high freight charges to Apia, will probably be cut off from shipping altogether.

Still, after all, we are a bit better off than Fiji, with 1/6 per case, and Tonga, with 1/- per case.

The cocoa market, which has kept up remarkably steady, so far, and which has benefited also by the high dollar exchange, has broken lately, and the local price has been reduced by £10 per ton this month by local buyers.

Fortunately, the cocoa planters had already disposed of the bulk of the first crop, which has proved a fairly good one, before the drop in price, and during the next few months compar atively small quantities will be de livered. By September or October, when the demand for Christmas busi ness sets in, and our second crop starts, it is hoped prices will have im proved again.