An Interesting Suggestion
p. 29 · Read in the full issue
Copra Market In
U.S.A. P
MR. Clive Brewster, head of the W. R.
Carpenter firm in Fiji, made an interesting suggestion, in a news paper interview in Auckland, in which he discussed the world copra market.
Mr. Brewster pointed out that there is a vast potential demand for copra in the United States, but that no tropical territory, other than the Philippines, could hope to supply that demand, be cause there is a processing tax of 2 cents a pound levied in the United States on coconut oil made from copra from non-American sources.
Mr. Brewster suggested that as there is now a vast readjustment taking place, as between the British Empire and the United States, it was possible that this tax would in future be modi fied, so that copra from British sources might be placed on the same footing as Philippines copra. That would open an almost unlimited market to copra from the British Pacific territories.
Such a development, obviously, would give a new lease of life to the South Pacific Islands copra industry, and plant ing interests should see to it that the plan is not lost sight of in the various negotiations which are likely to take place between the British Pacific coun tries and the United States.