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). Due to the strong demand for the new season’s crop (1949-50) and to the devaluation of the £ stg., prices have risen con siderably during recent months.

Accra (quotation by Colyer, Watson Pty., Ltd., Sydney) : £227/10/- sterling (equivalent to £233/17/6 Aust.) c.i.f., Sydney.

Western Pacific cocoa beans were quoted on the oydney market in mid-February at:—- New Guinea: £222/10/- per ton, ex wharf.

New Hebrides: £227/10/- per ton, ex wharf.

Most ox Western Samoa’s cocoa production goes to USA, where it is allocated by the Inter national Control Board. The price in Apia fell in 1949 to £llO Samoan per ton, f.0.b., but later recovered under a stimulated American demand. Recently, Samoan beans were quoted at £2lO Samoan per ton, f.0.b., and the price was expected to advance even further before mid-1950. (Samoan currency is equal to Sterling.)

Trochus Shell

Irregular shipments are handled in Sydney by some Pacific Islands trading firms. Nominal quotations are; Thursday Island shell, £65 to £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. The market is still In an unsettled state owing to the recent de valuation of the £ stg.—recent sales, though, have been either a little above or a little below the quotations stated.

Coffee

Overseas prices for coffee produced in British Territories and Colonies increased in late 1949, following devaluation of the £ stg., and Pacific Territories prices for coffee advanced similarly.

Nominal quotations are:— New Caledonia: Production exported to France at higher than normal rates (equivalent to around £250 Aust. per ton for Arabica and £2OO Aust. for Robusta).

New Guinea and Papua: Nominally £lBO to £240 per ton (c.i.f.), according to quality.

Java: No exports coming to Australia from Indonesia at present.

Vanilla Beans

Production of the main South Seas vanilla producer, French Oceania, mostly goes to USA.

Price for Tahiti vanilla beans (White Label) quoted on the Sydney market (by J. C. Merrillees Pty., Ltd.) is 8/6 per lb., c.i.f. Australian ports.

Rice

No free-trading in rice at present—though persistent efforts are being made at present to decontrol it. All the Australian crop goes to the Commonwealth Government 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

Nominal quotations in Sydney are at £65 per ton, c.i.f., lor f.a.q. shell, but there have been no sales during the past 12 months.

Pearl Shell

By a three-years’ contract between the Otto Gerdau Company (principal Mother of Pearl Shell buyer in USA) and the majority of Torres Strait pearlers, the Thursday Island shell prices were fixed in the middle of 1949 at: Sound grades, £A325 per ton, f.0.b., TI; “D” grade, £A225; “E” grade, £Al2s—all prices plus a bonus to be declared by tne company (£A2S for the first portion of 1949-50 season). Last season’s prices were around £A4OO for first-class grades of Torres shell.

Independent quotation: Top grades. £A465 per ton; “D,” £ A 340; ’‘E,” £A24O.

The Torres Strait pearling season closed at the end of January, until April.