Industry

N. Guinea’s Cocoa Industry Could Be Important

ACCORDING to confectionery manu facturers, Australian chocolate eaters can expect a continued rise in price of chocolates, unless cocoa-growing is established on a fairly extensive scale in New Guinea.

At present Australians spend £4,000,000 annually on chocolates, the cocoa-beans for which must be imported. Although cocoa has been grown in New Guinea for many years, it has not been grown on a sufficiently large scale to make much im pression on the Australian market. Aus tralian manufacturers’ supplies come largely from West Africa and from the New Hebrides. Such beans as do come from New Guinea have to be blended with others as they are unsuitable for use alone. All Western Samoa’s crop goes to the United States.

All cocoa-beajn prices are based on Accra prices. At present New Guinea and New Hebrides cocoa beans are bringing about £24OA per ton in Sydney. Western Samoa is getting the equivalent price of

£2Soa Fob Apia.

Parts of New Guinea are ideally suited to the growing of cocoa, and Australia’s needs could be taken care of within a comparatively few years if European plants were given encouragement. How ever, so long as the Australian Socialist Government, now in command of the De partment of External Territories, refuses to allow new planting areas to be de veloped by Europeans, and bases its agri cultural policy wholly on native agricul ture, little progress will be made. Although there are undoubtedly some natives who are capable of being instructed in cocoa growing, their contribution to Australia’s cocoa requirements would be negligible.

The majority of natives would be quite disinterested and incapable of putting their weight behind a cocoa-planting drive —which must be commenced with out delay if it is to be any good at all.