Islands Produce
p. 110 · Read in the full issue
(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 1950 crop have shown a tendency to fluctuate —in March they dropped to around £2OO Stg., but recovered in April and rose again early in May.
Accra (quotation by Colyer, Watson Pty., Ltd., Sydney): £225 sterling (equivalent to £2Bl/5/- Aust.), c.i.f., Sydney.
Western Pacific cocoa beans were quoted on the Sydney market in mid-May, at: — New Guinea: £A22O per ton, ex wharf.
New Hebrides: £A225 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 disastrously last year (to £llO Samoan per ton, f.0.b.), but later recovered. In mid-May, Samoan beans were quoted at £220 Samoan per ton, f.0.b., after being £2OO early in April. (Samoan currency equals sterling.)
Trochus Shell
Irregular shipments are handled In Sydney by some Pacific Islands trading firms. Nominal Sydney quotations are; Thursday Island shell, £9l per ton, f.0.b.; New Guinea shell, £7B per ton, c.i.f., Sydney—no sales reported during the month; Solomon Islands shell, £B5.
Fiji merchants recently paid for trochus £P6O (£A66/17/6) 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 for Arablca 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.
Price for Tahiti vanilla beans (White-Yellow Label) quoted..on the Sydney market (by J. C.
Merrillees Pty., Ltd.) is 16/6 per lb., c.i.f. Aus tralian 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.
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, £A.325 per ton, f.0.b., TI; “D” grade, £A225; “E” grade, £AI25 —all prices were plus bonuses declared by the company.
Independent quotations for 1949 season: Top grades. £A465 per ton; "D,” £A34O; “E,” £ A 240.
The Torres Strait pearling season re-opened during April. Contracts for the independent pearlers’ output were not finalised by mid-May.
One New York firm has offered £AS7O per ton for first-class shell and there are reports of still higher bids.