Unilever’S Grip On Copra

Is International Action Possible?

"We coconut planters can expect nothing from individual govern ments. Our only chance of securing protection against this world-wide com bine, which robs us of much of the fruit of our labour and enterprise, is to agitate ceaselessly for combined action by the various governments interested. It is an appalling task, on account of the world-wide character of the copra-industry: yet it is our only hope for the future.”

THAT is an extract from a private letter to the Editor from a copra pro ducer in Fiji: and it is a fair indication of what is in the minds of many thought ful planters. It is indeed an “appalling” problem.

If it were a problem peculiar to the copra industry, we could consider it in a more hopeful spirit. But the whole world to-day is in the grip of rings, com bines, and trusts, to an extent that is only beginning to be recognised, and the way out is not discernible. Primary pro duction throughout the world is almost completely at the mercy of international organisations, which pay producers what they like, charge consumers just as much as they can be forced to pay, and pocket almost every available penny of the resulting profits.

There is a political madness in the world called “economic nationalism.”

Every country, by operating tariffs and restrictions on trade, is trying to become economically independent of the other.

Every country, in consequence, is con tributing to the murder of free trade competition, and creating exactly the conditions for which the international monopolists nightly thank their patron saints—or devils.

If the nations would handle inter national trade in a truly co-operative spirit, the blood-sucking Unilever Com bine, and scores of other similar institu tions, could be laid by the heels in a month or two. As it is, it is practically impossible to limit their power or check their operations.

The financial power of those combines is beyond computation, and their political influence incredible. Governments, in many cases, are unconsciously their puppets. There are few commodities in world-wide general use whose distribu tion they do not control; and they are alert to influence any political move or legislative plan which may affect their Interests.

The power of Unilever in the copra industry is a very good example of what is going on. It operates mainly in European countries and, outside of Uni lever, there is no manufacturer with suf ficient buying power to affect the market.

Unilever’s agents are in every market, and each operates according to the price that daily is fixed— usually in London.

The hopeful shippers may send their car goes to London or the Baltic, to the Mediterranean or to Rotterdam—it makes no difference, beyond a few shillings per ton. So far as the copra-producer is con cerned, the quote of Unilever, London, received through any one of its score of allied companies, is as the voice of God.

There is no appeal.

Unilever, by intensive organisation and

centralisation (“rationalisation”) has wiped out an enormous amount of waste, represented in duplication of effort and plant. If the public received the benefit in cheaper foods there would be some justification for the monopoly. But the public gets the goods at about the same old price, and the saving goes into the maw of the combine. The governments are complaisant, because the public is not being forced to pay a higher price— the Combine is far too cunning for that.

But the absence of competition among buyers allows the Combine to fix its own buying price; and it is the producers (not the consumers) who are being robbed.

The copra producers, scattered over fifty tropical countries, are not the concern of any particular government; and so they take it in the neck. They are quite helpless against a thing like Unilever.

If the copra-producers (of Africa, Philippines, Malaya, Ceylon, East Indies, South Seas, West Indies, etc.) could combine: and if they could present a case, backed by effective propaganda, to a powerful government like that of Bri tain; and if Britain could persuade the governments of France, Holland, Japan, United States and the British Dominions to join her in special action; and if the latter governments could resist the cun ning and cleverness of the Combine pro tagonists—something might be done to assist the copra-producers of the world.

But consider that series of “ifs”!

Copra, in recent weeks, has moved to over £12 per ton, London —the result of developments in America, of increased European purchases, of the new Whaling Convention, and, above all, of European buyers being “caught short” by the American development. If it remains at over £12 per ton it will represent a miracle—it will mean that something, now unforeseen, has happened to limit the power of Unilever. But if Unilever retains its power and influence, the copra price will settle down at less than £12 per ton. Which means that planters

will be able to live —and to work indefinitely to provide rich profits for Unilever.