Introducing

Delana

Carpenters Suva Mills Produce Margarine With A ‘J’

INHERE was an air of festivity about . the Carpenter establishments in Suva on May 30. Not threats nor cajolings could remove the smile from the tenacious jaw of Managing Director “Tui” Johnson. For, at last, Delana had been born right and was behaving accord ing to specifications.

Delana is the trade name of Fiji marga rine, newest and most tricky product of the Carpenter copra-crushing mills, built in Suva since the war.

The mills, for a couple of years, have been producing and exporting coconut oil and coconut meal. It seemed a simple matter of technical skill and adaptation to produce margarine, now the world’s commonest alternative to butter.

But, somehow, the thing wouldn’t “jell.”

Carpenters knew that they must offer a first-class product if they were going to find a place in the market against very powerful competitors. Their machines were all ready to turn two or three months ago; but the heads were not satis fied.

“We can’t do, in the mass, what we do quite satisfactorily in the test-tube,” ex plained Mr. Johnson, with suitable ad jectives. “And we don’t know why.”

However, much midnight electricity was burned; the secret was discovered and Delana entered the market on June 1, with some drum-banging and no apologies.

On present indications, it looks as if Fiji will eat all the Delana that the mills can produce for a little while, but the manufacturers are out after the widest possible market.

They hope, reasonably enough, that this will be a new money-spinning industry for Fiji. Why ship the copra to distant lands, to be made into margarine, when the job can be done just as readily, in Fiji?

NOW, two more problems are brifiging furrows of care to the forehead of the managing director. How should they spell margarine in Fiji? And how ensure regular and adequate supplfes of the best copra?

The first question appears absurd. Why spell margarine with a J when the rest of the world uses a G? But it seems that margarine, spelt in Fijian, has a mean ing that brings a blush to the cheeks of simple persons of cleanly thought, where as marjarine has no blemish upon it.

So, to the irritation of advertisers, pub lishers, printers and lowly folk of that ilk, the Delana packets intended for Fiji consumption are labelled marjarine; but, outside Fiji, Delana is presented to the world, all starry-eyed and innocent, as margarine. An outstanding example of the knavery of these commercial classes!

The copra supply problem is a horse of a different colour. No innocence here — but plenty of chicanery.

Fiji produces a great deal of copra; the Carpenter mills naturally want good quality stuff, but there is a ferocious de mand for every bag of copra produced, good or bad. It is a trade in which no quarter is given, or expected. Carpenters, like everyone else, if they want copya, must go and get it . . . mostly across the water.

For years, Carpenters have had their copra freighted in on the small ships of competitors. As the competition grew, the difficulties of freighting on the other fel low’s ship increased. So the obvious has happened: Carpenters are buying their

own ships, for the freighting of their copra. One vessel already is in commis sion.