Pacific Copra
p. 43 · Read in the full issue
How to Consume More Pacific Copra
Letter to the Editor IN June issue, “Ga Ni Bulu”, calls for coconut planters to unite in foster ing the growth of local industries handling copra products. It occurred to me that the success of the Coconut Board in Ceylon might encourage Pacific growers, if it were made known.
The coconut industry in Ceylon is under the supervision of the Ceylon Government Coconut Board. Facing a problem similar to that confronting Pacific copra producers, the Board de cided to try to increase the local con sumption of coconuts, and the manufac ture of by-products in Ceylon. Of course, the local population is large compared with that of Fiji; but so, too, was the supply of nuts and the number of growers.
I left Colombo about three weeks be fore the outbreak of war. Anticipating the war, and subsequent loss of over seas revenue, the Coconut Board, on 23rd August, 1939, inaugurated intense local propaganda to encourage the eating of fresh nuts as a staple article of diet by the labouring populace. It was esti mated that the consumption would reach an average of half a nut per head per day. The Planters’ Association assisted to bring this about by encouraging their own labourers to eat coconuts.
Articles on the use of coconuts in cook ing were published in both English and vernacular, and competitions were run offering prizes for the best dishes, curries and sweet-meats in which coconuts were used.
A motor-caravan was put on the roads as a travelling exhibit, and visited vil lages and fairs, popularising the use of
hair-oils, cooking-oils, soaps, margarine, sweets, biscuits and condiments, to say nothing of toddy and arrack. In con junction with this propaganda, the Coco nut Board opened a large showroom in the heart of shopping Colombo, where local manufacturers were invited to dis play their wares. Trading under the name of Ceylon Coconut Products Em porium, the Board advertised in overseas magazines and distributed hand-bills to all vessels berthing in the harbour, in viting tourists to visit the Emporium, where over 300 different varieties of coconut products were exhibited for sale.
As a result, the sale of deck-mops, yard-brooms, coir-mats, coconut-matting and rope flourished in Colombo. A large local industry grew in the manufacture of hair and cooking-oils, soaps and sweets. A purely native product in the form of cheap matting, made from the leaves of the trees, grew very rapidly, and the product is used everywhere in Ceylon, and by our armies in Asia, to build temporary huts and screens.
Fiji, with its 85.000 Indians and 90.000 natives, is probably best situated among the Pacific Territories to attempt any thing like the Ceylon exneriment. A co operative movement by copra-growers should show results. Large employers might encourage their employees to use fresh coconuts as food, and the local manufacture of brooms, matting, soaps, etc., might be fostered. A Fiji Coconut Products Emporium, in Suva, might stimulate local consumption, as well as interest travellers. Branch Emporiums in Auckland and Sydney, or motor pro paganda vans visiting the country shows in Australia and New Zealand, might give good results.
I am, etc.,
Cicada.
Vaucluse, Sydney, 5/7/1941.
Mr. R. Brain, of New Britain Timbers Ltd., was in Victoria in June and July on leave.
Mr. George Patterson, son of Mr. G.
Patterson, of Patterson Bros., Levuka, Fiji, is serving with the NZ Forces as a sergeant in a machine gun unit.