Islands Cocoa
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
Opportunity for Expanding the N.G. Industry
CONTINUING its steady upward trend, Islands cocoa was quoted by Sydney merchants during the month at: New Guinea cocoa, £5O-55 per ton; Western Samoan, £6l; and New Hebrides, £52. Two years ago, just before the outbreak of war, NG cocoa was being bought for £26 per ton!
The main factor influencing the price rise is apparently the lack of supplies coming forward from Accra (West Africa), which normally meets about nine-tenths of Australia’s requirements. Last month, the “Australasian Confectioner”, organ of the sweet-making industry, authoritatively stated that no shipping space will be available to carry the new season’s cocoa beans from West Africa to Australia.
Nowadays in New Guinea, youngest of the three main cocoa-producing terri tories in the Pacific, increasing interest is being disnlayed in the cultivation of the crop. Correspondents in the local press have suggested that the present is a Heaven-sent opportunity to expand the industry and they urge the establishment of a cocoa investigation committee to inquire thoroughly into the position—land and labour available, financial assistance, advice and instruction to planters, marketing, etc.
Cocoa is a crop eminently suited to the Mandated Territory and, as has been pointed out on a number of occasions in this journal, can profitably be carried on in conjunction with a copra-producing estate. Actually, only one quarter the area needed for economic copra produc tion is required for cocoa.