Copra

Urgent Demand on "Controlled" But Rising Market

rERE has been little change in the copra situation. The demand is far in excess of the available supply, but the market price is being sternly controlled by the Governments of the United Nations, and supplies are being rationed.

The official price (fixed by the British authority in Suva) is (in Fijian cur rency) :—

The average price of New Caledonian copra in Sydney in August was £20 per ton, although some had been sold as high as £30.

It has been stated in some quarters that copra is being bought and sold in Australia and the United States at prices considerably the official price.

Coconut planters in New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands and French Oceania are getting the full benefit of the high price. The chief copra-producing territories of New Guinea, Solomons, Philippines and East Indies are in Japanese occupation, and the owners of plantations there are get ting no benefit whatever.

A Fiji Grievance

THERE is bitter feeling in many parts of Fiji because, just at a time when the coconut planters, after suffering many lean years, have a chance of mak ing substantial profits from their pro ducts, all their available labour is being drawn away to Suva and other districts, to be used on Governmental and defence works.

Everyone in the Colony with coconut palms is doing his utmost to produce copra, which is in urgent demand and may be regarded as a wartime necessity.

The native Fijians are in a good position, because they have their own co-operative village labour; but the European plant ers, who customarily depend upon a cer tain surplus of Fijian village labour, are unable to obtain any labour at all, and are just doing the best they can with the very limited resources available to them in and near their own plantations.

It is recognised that defence and Governmental needs are paramount; but it is felt that there has been a lack of organisation and co-ordination in rela tion to this matter—that it should have been possible to meet defence require ments, while allotting a certain propor tion of available labour to the planta tions.

STATISTICS in Fiji, since the incep tion of the Government plan of pur chasing copra, show that, between the purchase of the copra from the pro ducers and the shipment of same, there was an average shrinkage of 1.8 per cent. m Plantation grade copra and 2.8 per cent, in FMS copra. The Suva copra authority handled 1,684 tons of Planta tion grade and 2,180 tons of FMS grade, and the total obtained for the copra, over and above the guaranteed price, was £4.047, or an average of nearly £1 per ton.

Per Ton.

Plantation Grade £18 5 0 Fair Merchantable Sundried .. 17 0 0 Undergrade 16 15 0