No Bananas!

Samoa and Tonga Benefit at Cook Is. Expense

AN extraordinary banana situation has developed in the Central Pacific.

The N. Z. Government controls the Cook Islands, and has imposed a “fruit control scheme”, which included bananas from April 1. Growers, under this, were offered 3/6 per case. They declined flatly, and the “Matua” sailed from Rarotonga in mid-April with 728 cases, instead of the 2,500 expected.

But it was a godsend for planters in Samoa (suffering from the fall in cocoa) and Tonga (smitten by drought). New Zealand’s markets have eagerly absorbed both Samoan and Tongan bananas, at prices which will return growers more than 3/6 per case. All the vacant “Matua” space was taken by Samoan bananas.

Fiji, also, is taking a keen interest in the N.Z. banana market. The Fijian, Sa moan and Tongan bananas are better than the Cook Island product—probably because the Cook Islanders have not been encouraged to properly cultivate their banana The Cook Island people are reported to be on the warpath against the “fruit control scheme” —at least, so far as bananas are concerned.