Cocoa Slump

Samoa and New Guinea Growers Affected

COCOA producers in Western Samoa and New Guinea have received rather a shock during the past few weeks uy a rapid fall in the price of cocoa.

The recent history of the market in Sydney, as supplied to us by Messrs.

Nelson & Robertson, Pty., Ltd. (who have been selling increasingly large quantities of New Guinea cocoa beans in Australia) gives an idea of what has happened. Towards the end of 1937, New Guinea beans were selling in Sydney for as high as £44 Australian per ton. The prices obtained in February, March and April, 1938, were respectively £37, £3B, and £4O. From then on, a rapid decline commenced, and, by the middle of June, the best price on off er was £25 Australian per ton.

Our correspondent in Western Samoa reports that the market has fallen there in a similar way.

All commodities have been under de pressing influences during the past six months; but, in the case of cocoa, there is a special reason for the fall. The native growers of Accra, West Africa, last year declared a strike against the prevailing price and flatly refused to sell. This drove the buyers to other parts of the world for supplies, and kept the price high. Meanwhile, the Accra stocks were accumulating. Within re cent weeks, the Accra growers have called off their strike and they not only have returned to the market with or dinary supplies, but they have thrown upon the market also a very consider able accumulation of stocks, with cala mitous results —namely, the price has broken very definitely in favour of buyers. This condition may be expected to last for some time, and until the ac cumulated stocks are absorbed.

The position is difficult for Pacific Islands growers. They dare not hold large stocks in the Islands, where the cocoa beans are very liable to attack from a small white copra grub, which does a large amount of damage in a short time.