Copra Sacks May Be Scarcer and Dearer

Next Year

A TARIFF war between India and Pakistan may result in a steep in crease in the cost of copra sacks (and a sharp decline in their production) next year.

India does most of the jute processing; Pakistan grows the fibre. Recently, India

began raising the duty on raw jute with the result that Pakistan stopped sending it across the border. Sacks in India jumped from the equivalent of 27/6 per dozen to about 42/- per dozen (Austra lian) ; the Calcutta jute market closed down and sales are limited now to black market dealings. India is reported to be increasing her own production of raw jute but it will take three years before she is self-sufficient.

There has been a shortage of bags and sacks since the end of the war but the position has eased slightly in the last two years. The bumper Australian wheat harvest of two years ago found Australia unprepared as far as sacks were con cerned. Copra producing territories, de pendent upon Australia for copra sacks, consequently went short also. A better than-average wheat crop is again being harvested in Australia at the present time.

It is reported that there are ample sup plies of jute and hessian available in the Commonwealth to cope with it but after that the outlook is grim. Australia has a quota of 100,000 tons of jute a year but the demand of sacks is growing all the time.

Although the cultivation of other fibre producing plants (sisal, ramie, etc.) has been boosted in tropical and sub-tropical territories from time to time, nothing seems to have displaced jute as a material for sacks. At present two young service men in Sydney are engaged in cultivating acres of canna lilies, which are known to most amateur gardeners. It is said that the fibres of the roots can be used as a substitute for jute and similar commercial fibres.