Campaign Launched To
pp. 20-21 · Read in the full issue
Raise Copra Price “Fiji is Losing £480,000 a Year"
From Our Own Correspondent
Suva, May 19
LAUNCHING a campaign to raise the price paid for Fiji’s copra to some thing nearer the current world figure, Mr. w. G, Johnson, a nominated member of the Legislative Council of Fiji, who is also the Fiji head of the firm of W. R. Carpenter (Fiji) Ltd., said in a press statement and broadcast this week that Fiji is being short-paid ap proximately £16 (Fiji Currency) a ton.
Based on a yearly production of 30,000 tons, this means that the Colony in a year is losing £480,000 or a daily loss of £1,315.
After reviewing the system of copra purchasing , established during the war, under which the Government of Fiji, as agent for the British Ministry of Food, became the sole purchaser of copra in the Colony, Mr. Johnson said that the price paid for copra in Fiji was not on a parity with that paid in other parts of the world by other countries, and, in some cases, that paid in other countries by the British Ministry of Food itself.
All Fiji copra and all Fiji coconut oil goes to Britain. Such Fiji coconut meal as is not consumed locally is shipped to New Zealand to assist the dairying and stock industries there in their effort to supply the utmost quantities of farm produce to Britain.
“I am aware,” said Mr. Johnson, “that the Fiji Government has been making strenuous efforts with the Colonial Office, which in turn communicates with the British Ministry of Food.
“These efforts have been going on for such an extraordinarily long time with so little result that I am convinced that it requires the united effort of the people in the copra industry in Fiji to back the Fiji Government. The Colonial Office will then be able to present to the Minis try of Food a proper statement of the wishes and opinions of Fiji producers.”
Mr. Johnson’s circular points out that the price the producer is paid for copra at Suva and Levuka to-day is £29/10/- FMS and £29/15/6 plantation grades (Fiji currency). The Fiji Copra Board receives from the British Ministry of Food £32/15/6 for FMS and £33/1/- for plantation grade a ton in bulk when the copra is put on board the export ship.* “The whole of this margin of £3/5/6 is absorbed in local charges for storing, handling, insurance, etc. No part of it is retained by the Government of Fiji or anv merchants or other organisation here,states the circular.
“The price the British Ministry of Food is paying to-day for Ceylon copra is £61/15/- (sterling) a ton, equal to ap proximately £68/5/- (Fiji currency). This is made up of the f.o.b. price of £46/15/- (sterling) Ceylon port agreed to by the British Ministry under a five years’ con tract, and £15 (sterling) a ton export duty imposed by the Government of Ceylon. , .
“The British Parliamentary Debates in dicate that the British Government did not exnect to have to pay the £15 export tax, but the fact is that Britain is paying both the f.o.b and the export tax.
“London cablegrams show that at the end of last year the price paid for Phil ippines copra was as high as 245- United States dollars a ton, equal to approx imately £67 (Fiji). However, the present price of Philippines copra is reported to be 215 dollars, equal to £59.
“The Fiji Government should request the Ministry of Food to pay us the price
*20/- Fijian — 22/6 Australian.
it is paying to Ceylon, less an allowance to cover the difference in quality between Ceylon grade and Fiji. Based on only £46/15/- (sterling) f.o.b. Ceylon, less quality difference £2/5/-, the figure is £44/10/- (£49/5/- Fiji). The average price the Copra Board receives from the British Ministry is about £32/17/6.
Therefore the difference in to-day’s prices is £l6/7/6 (Fiii) and this should be the amount of the rise granted immediately.”