Islands Produce
p. 130 · Read in the full issue
<Unless otherwise stated, quotations are in Australian currency)
Copra
Papua-NG.—Production Control Board price: Main ports, Hot-air. £57 per ton (Kokopo, £55/12/6); Smoked. £56/7/6 (£55). Sydney crushers pay: Hot-air, £74/15/-; Smoked, £74/2/6. Australia has 9 years’ contract with UK, based on £53/15/- Stg. ton.
Fiji.— £FS9/10/7 per ton, f.0.b., Suva — producers get £FS4/10/6 ton, plantation grade. Suva or Levuka; £FS4/5/-, FMS;
£FSI-£53. other. Fiji has 9 years’ con tract wfith UK Food Ministry.
New Hebrides.—At Vila ‘and Santo: approx. £ ABO per ton.
Samoa. —Producers receive £S4S/11/- (par with Stg.i per ton, f.0.b., Apia based on MOF rate of £ Stg.s3/19 - (less £SS/7/ll Duty, £S3/0/l Stabilisation!.
BSI. —Growers get £ASI per ton, f.0.b., Honiara or Yandina (based on £ Stg.s3/15 - MOP price).
Tahiti.—Merchants pay 14,900 Pacific fr. per 1,000 kilos (about £AIO6 per ton).
Cocoa
Islands prices are usually based on rate for Accra cocoa (W. Africa), quotation (from Colyer Watson Ltd., Sydney) for which in August was £Btg. 255 (£IA3IB/15/-) c.i.f.
Pacific cocoa was quoted nominally on Sydney market in August at: — New Guinea.—Approx. £A3OO per ton, ex wharf.
New Hebrides.—Nominally £A3os—sup plies unavailable in Sydney at present.
Samoa. —Sydney agents quote Samoan cocoa at £5295 (£A36B/15/-) per ton, first-grade. (Samoan currency equals Stg.)
Coffee
New Caledonia.—Production exported to France at nominal equivalent of £A4SO per ton, Arabica; £A4OO, Robusta.
Papua-NG.—Nominally £375 to £425 per ton (c.i.f. i. according to quality.
Rubber
Sydney firms use London and Singapore rates as basis to buy Papuan rubber.
Aug. 3: No. 1 grade, RSS (sellers) Spot 45d Stg. lb., c.i.f.. London (56y 4 d Aust. lb.»; Singapore, RSS No. 1, 145 cents lb., f.o.b.
Vanilla Beans
Papeete merchants recently quoted 325 Pac. fr. per kilo for Tahiti vanilla beans.
Sydney quotation: White Label, 12/6 lb., c.i.f., Sydney.
Rice
Rice shipped from Sydney to Islands was fixed in May at £6O f.0.b., White, Unpolished and Brown. (On plantation in P-NG, approx. £85.)
Troches Shell
Market at standstill—nominal Sydne quotations, August, were; TI, £lBO p»i ton, f.0.b.; NG, £175, c.i.f., Sydney Solomon Is., £180; Fiji, £F*' ( £AIOI/14/-), long ton, Suva; N. Cali] donia, approx. 14,000 fr. ton, Noumea.
Green Snail Shell
Nominal quotation is at £l5O-£l6O p« ton, on wharf, Sydney.
Pearl Shell
By a contract between Gerdau CC (USAi and majority of Torres pearlen TI shell prices were fixed, 1949-52, ac Sound grades. £A325 per ton. f.0.b.. T/ “D” grade, £A225; “E” grade. £AI2S-« all plus bonuses. Independent pearler are selling at around £ASBO for Soun grades; £A465, “D” grades; £A34O, 'H grades.