Interesting Review of an Important Industry

Fair Play For Cocoa Growers

SOME of the South Pacific Terri tories are interested in the production of cocoa. The industry is firmly established in Western Samoa; and, until the Japanese invasion, cocoa-growing was making consider able progress in New Guinea.

It appears, however, that, although the rates for cocoa-beans remain high, the industry has reached a crisis. The position is explained in the following article, which appeared in the June issue of “The Crown Colonist.” It is by Mr. A. V. Stoll

meyer, whose address is PO Box 114, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies.

He is a cocoa planter and commission agent, and he was a member of the Legislature of Trinidad.

The cocoa-bean, of course, ranks with sugar as one of the most im portant raw materials of the confec

tionery industry.

IT is no secret that the cocoa and chocolate manufacturers of Great Britain and America are seriously concerned over the future supply of cocoa beans.

If they were as well acquainted as the growers are with the future outlook for this product their concern would become acute disquietude. For the present world shortage of cocoa is not only going to get worse: it will almost certainly get so much worse than the manufacturers now expect, that their business is likely to suffer for years to come. And if they do not wish to find themselves unable to fill their needs, then they had better make it their business to see that something liberal is done for the cocoa planter and done soon.

The responsibility for the present state of affairs can be laid very largely at the door of the manufacturers. They have consistently followed the short-sighted policy of buying what they knew to be an cheap cocoa for almost the entire period between World Wars 1 and 11, without once raising their voices on behalf of the planters who supplied it.

They mistakenly thought they could continue to rely upon this cheap supply indefinitely, and that they need not bother about what was happening to the planta tions. If they had paused at any time to pay some attention to the complaints and prophecies of the cocoa planters regarding the effect the wretchedly low price of cocoa was having and would continue to have upon actual production, they would surely have done something about it.

BUT the repeated representations of planters went unheeded by manu facturers and Governments alike.

Planters came to be regarded as chronic complainers. They were considered a nuisance because they kept emphasising that the cocoa tree needs a lot of care and attention if it is not to fall a victim to devastating disease, and that, as it was not getting this attention because of low world prices, deadly disease was year by year taking an ever-increasing toll of crops.

The seriousness of the situation grew steadily more apparent from 1919 to 1939, yet the British Government, which in the final analysis was responsible for basic cocoa prices for that period, consistently failed to see that the return to Colonial planters was sufficient to enable them to keep their trees in a reasonably healthy condition. ' The manufacturers stood silently by.

Even after disease had taken a firm hold, and the manifest danger to the future of the industry had been plainly foretold, still no relief of any moment was forthcoming.

TODAY, unless better prices are soon received, the concern of the cocoa and chocolate manufacturers is likely to reach a point where they may well question their wisdom in engaging in the industry at all.

A variety of deadly diseases is making ever greater inroads into cocoa cultivation the world over. In spite of all research to date, no tree with any degree of im munity has yet made its appearance, while the price paid the planter continues

so inadequate that he is not able to do anything effective in combating such diseases , There is no need to present any startles in the matter. The broad fact that the present world cost of producing cocoa is far in excess of the pnee received for it. if any proper allowance is made for the cost of combating disease, is well known to even/ cocoa authority.

The one and only hope of maintaining the world’s present supply of cocoa, and of providing for the increase for which the* demand already exists, is better cultivation on plantations that have not yet been ravaged by disease, and complete rehabilitation of the remaining plantations. If this is not done, world production of cocoa, already considerably

diminished, will continue its decline with increasing momentum. r reverse this process, planters must receive for a long time to come at least 50 per cent, more than March, 1946, prices, and probably more still.

The simple method of obtaining this increase would be to abolish price ceilings and controls at once. World demand would then soon raise prices to a reason able amount.

The gross injustice of holding the ceiling price of estate cocoa, for example, to approximately the figure obtaining im mediately prior to World War 11, when every expense of the planter, including his wage scale, has doubled or tripled in amount, should be apparent even to a Government, and still more so to manu

facturers. The latter have always been careful to see that they themselves received a fair price for their own manufactured product.

The object of this article is to bring home to the manufacturer the vital im portance to him of the spectre haunting the future of cocoa, i.e., plant disease, and to warn him that adequate provision to the planter to meet this menace must soon be made. If not, it may spread with a rapidity sufficient to bring about a world shortage in cocoa such as no one has ever dreamed of.

It is advisable, therefore, that from now on the cocoa manufacturer study the statistics of the spread of disease with the very closest attention.