Islands Produce

(Unless otherwise stated, quotations are in Australian currency)

Cocoa

Cocoa beans imported into Australia from the Pacific Islands come mostly from New Guinea and the New Hebrides and are purchased almost wholly by the Commonwealth Chocolate and Confectionery Manufacturers’ Association. The buying price is based on the ruling rate of Accra beans (produced mainly in the Gold Coast Colony, West Africa). The Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board, in Accra, recently announced that, owing to increased world production, the price for the next crop will be lower than that of 1948-49. New prices will be fixed before the new crop is harvested in October, Western Pacific cocoa beans were quoted on the Sydney market in mid-September at:— New Guinea: £l3l per ton.

New Hebrides: £136 per ton.

Western Samoa’s cocoa production normally goes to USA, where its distribution is controlled by the International Control Board. The price in Apia fell early in 1949 to £lOO-£l2O Stg. per ton, f.o.b.

Accra (quotation by Colyer, Watson Pty., Ltd., Sydney): £127/10/- Sterling (equivalent to approximately £l5B/17/6 Aust.), c.i.f., Sydney.

Trochus Shell

Irregular shipments are handled in Sydney by some Pacific Islands trading firms. Recent quotations were: Thursday Island shell, £7O per ton, f.0.b.; New Guinea shell, £64 per ton, c.i.f., Sydney: Solomon Islands shell, £65 per ton, c.i.f., Sydney. Difficult to sell.

Coffee

No coffee trading is permitted in Australia without the consent of the Tea and Coffee Control Board, to which all offers must first be submitted. Nominal quotations as follows: — New Caledonia: Production is being taken by France at considerably higher than normal rates, (equivalent to around £2OO Australian per ton for Arablca and £l6O Aust. for Robusta).

New Guinea and Papua: Nominally £l2O to £l6O per ton (c.i.f,), according to quality.

Java: No exports coming to Australia from Indonesia.

Vanilla Beans

No Pacific Islands supplies available. Produc tion of the main South Seas vanilla-producer, French Oceania, goes to USA.

Rice

No free-trading in rice at present. The whole of the Australian rice crop goes to the Govern ment for allocation to countries where rice is a staple of the native peoples. Rice shipped from Sydney to Islands ports is fixed at £45 per ton White and £49 per ton Brown.

Green Snail Shell

Quotations recently on the Sydney market were steady at £72 per ton, c.i.f., for f.a.q. shell.

Pearl Shell

By a contract for the 1949-50 season, made recently with the principal USA Mother of Pearl Shell buyer, Thursday Island shell was fixed at following prices: Grade “AA” to “C,” £A325 per long ton, f.0.b., TI; grade “D,” £A225; grade “E,” £AI2S. This represented a substantial decline compared with last season’s price of £ A4OO for top grades of Torres Strait MOP shell.