Cocoa-Culture
p. 43 · Read in the full issue
An Inquiry from London
Letter to the Editor.
I WONDER if anyone out there is taking up cocoa? I should like to clear a thousand acres and plant it for a decent company. They would get a return in five years, and by then the Commonwealth would have a definite policy for its own tropical products, I have a man, who is also an expert in the cultivation and cur ing of cocoa, and with proper land, there should be not less than 500 tons p.a. from the 1000 acres, say, at the end of 8/10 years. With to-day’s prices for fine fer mented cocoa, the profit should be at least £8 per ton net, and the costs of bringing to bearing not more than £20 per acre.
A capital of £20,000 would be ample, and a return of 20 per cent, is what would be aimed at; and cocoa is a good thing with users growing in numbers, and, at pre sent, as far from the cocoa producing world as is possible.
If any of the plantation-minded people are interested, I shall be glad to go into the matter, and feel that not only Papua but New Guinea has some wonderful land for the growing of this product.
I am etc.,
J. E. Nixon-Westwood.
37 Farquhar Road, London, S.E.19, 30/9/34. [EDITORIAL NOTE. —The above letter, prob ably, was not written for publication; but this is a time when South Seas planters should know all the opportunities that are offering. Mr. Nixon- Westwood was a cocoa-grower in West Africa, and was in the South Pacific a couple of years ago.]