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). Prices for the new season’s crop show a tendency to fall, in sym pathy with the recent American drop (from $2B per 50 kilos in January to $23 in March).

Accra (quotation by Colyer, Watson Pty.. Ltd., Sydney): £215 sterling (equivalent to £268/15/- Aust.), c.i.f., Sydney.

Western Pacific cocoa beans were quoted on the Sydney market in mid-March, at:— New Guinea; £23OA per ton, ex wharf.

New Hebrides; £23OA per ton, ex wharf.

Most of 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. In mid-March, Samoan beans were quoted at £230 Samoan per ton, f.o.b. (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, £72 per ton, f.0.b.; New Guinea shell. £7O per ton. c.i.f., Sydney: Solomon Islands shell. £7O per ton, c.i.f., Sydney.

Fiji merchants are buying trochus at £F6O per long ton on the beach at Suva.

Coffee

Prices for coffee produced in British Colonies increased in 1949, following devaluation of the £ stg., and Pacific Territories prices advanced similarly. Nominal quotations are:— New Caledonia: Production exported to France at higher than normal rates (equivalent to around £4OO Aust. per ton far Arabica and £350 Aust. for Robusta).

New Guinea and Papua: Nominally £350 to £370 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.

Papeete merchants quote 325 francs per kilo (2.2 lb.).

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. 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., for f.a.q. shell, but there has been little shell sold 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. £AI25 —all prices were plus bonuses declared by the company. The previous 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 late April (weather permitting),