Copra Outlook

Low Grades Practically Unsaleable

THE prospects of the coconut industry were discussed at the 35th annual meeting of the Straits Plantations Ltd., held in London in July. The following ex tracts are from the “Times” report: “There has been an uninterrupted fall in our costs; they are now lower than they ever have been, and, I think we may find, have about touched bottom. For some time the coolies’ cost of living has been very low. and until only the other day the demand for labour was slack. Rates of pay, in consequence, had declined to the level of a quarter of a century ago. . . .

The progressive reduction of costs has reached a level which seemed quite out of the range of possibilities a few years ago, but this does not mean that the condition of the estates has been allowed to deterio rate. On the contrary, we are assured that our managers have succeeded in keeping them in first-class order, including all im mature areas.”

This reference to costs is interesting.

In the South Seas, in contrast with Malaya, native wages have not altered.

“The immediate outlook for copra can only be described as obscure,” says the re port. “The disorganization characteristic of so many markets to-day exists in an extreme degree in ours. Wide movements in exchange, currency vagaries, tariffs, quotas, excise duties, and ‘processing’ levies have contributed at times almost to paralyse trading in vegetable oils and their products. The figures for the United King dom show imports of oilseeds and kernels at only 1,288,000 tons in 1933, against no less than 1,785,000 so far back as 1924. Lin seed imports dropped in a single year from 362,000 tons (1932) to 246,000 tons (1933).

Crude cotton-seed oil fell in value over the same two years from £23 10s per ton to £13 10s.; and ground-nut oil from £28 10s. to £19 10s. Whale oil, owing to mass destruction methods, has of late years been accountable for widely fluctuating additions to the oil market —the output exceeding 3,500,000 barrels in the heaviest year— and, owing to modern processes of indus trial chemistry, whale oil competes directly in certain uses with vegetable oils.

“These typical figures illustrate the chaos of markets in a period when political influences and the budgetary needs of pro ducing and consuming countries compli cate the pull of purely economic forces.

Meanwhile we are engaged in producing the best of all vegetable oil products, and when one looks beyond the immediate future we have good grounds for confidence.”

Better Grade Of Copra

Demanded.

The following significant paragraph was contained in a report from Messrs. Burns, Philp & Co., Ltd., London, dated 10th Aug ust last: “All this week we have been working to sell parcels of Plantation Sundried copra in bags, F.M.S. Samoan copra in bags, South Sea sundried copra in bags. While Messrs.

Unilever Ltd. would have purchased the Sundried Plantation copra in bags, they refused to have anything to do with the F.M.S. Samoan and the South Sea sun-dried copra in bags. We therefore did not sell the Plantation grade without the others, and there the matter rests for the time being. It is just as well to let you know the dead set Messrs. Unilever Ltd. are mak ing against the quality of the Native Sun dried South Sea copra in bags.

The Quality of native-made sundried copra will have to be improved, otherwise,

like smokedried copra, it will be saleable only at a substantial discount in the mar ket price, and the sales will become more difficult as the proportion of good copra produced at other centres increases. The

greater proportion of native sun-dried is shipped mainly from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Gilbert Islands.”

Whale Oil Production.

According to a report issued by the Committee for Whaling Statistics, appoint ed by the Norwegian Government, the maximum of oil output was reached in

1931 (season 1930-31) with 3,686,976 barrels.

In 1932 it was 915,842 barrels, and in 1933 2,596.778 barrels, which was only 200,000 barrels less than in 1930. A calculation of the oil output for the Antarctic in the sea son 1933-34 shows a figure which is about 100,000 barrels less than in 1932-33. The output of oil in the last two years is then, compared with the production of former years in the Antarctic, very large, only the two years 1930 and 1931 showing a greater output. The output of oil in 1933 was 29.6 per cent, lower than in 1931, while the number of whales caught in 1933 was 33.1 per cent, lower than in 1931. The oil output has thus decreased less than the number of whales caught.