Islands Produce

•(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 with UK Food Ministry.

New Hebrides.—At Vila and Santo: approx. £ABO per ton.

Samoa. —-Producers receive £S4S/11/- (par with Stg.) per ton, f.0.b., Apia— based on MOF rate of £ Stg.s3/19/- (less £SS/7/11 Duty, £S3/0/l Stabilisation).

BSl.—Growers get £ASI per ton, f.0.b., Honiara or Yandina (based on £ Stg.s3/15/- MOF 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 September was £Stg. 280 ( £A3SO) c.i.f.

Pacific cocoa was quoted nominally on Sydney market in September at:— New Guinea. — £A3IS per ton, ex wharf.

New Hebrides.—Nominally £A32o—sup plies unavailable in Sydney at present.

Samoa. —Sydney agents in September quoted Samoan cocoa unchanged at £ 5295 ( £ A368/15/-» 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.), according to quality.

Rubber

Sydney firms use London and Singapore rates as basis to buy Papuan rubber.

Sept. 6: No. 1 grade. RSS (sellers) Spot 50d. Stg. lb.. c.i.f., London (62V 2 d.

Aust. lb.); Singapore, RSS No. 1, 163V2 cents lb., f.o.b.

Vanilla Beans

Papeete merchants recently quoted 325 Pacific francs per kilo for Tahiti vanilla beans. Sydney quotation: White Label, 20/6 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 Papua-New Guinea, approx. £85.)

Trochus Shell

Market for trochus shell in Sydney is unsettled at present—most agents are not interested in buying until prices firm. It

was reported last month that, because of labour shortage, Sydney importers were insisting that shell be sorted before ship ment; the Western Pacific shell price was quoted at approx. £ 175 per ton' on wharf, Sydney.

Green Snail Shell

Nominal quotation is at £l5O-£l6O per ton, on wharf, Sydney.

Pearl Shell

By a contract between Gerdau Co. (USA) and majority of Torres pearlers, TI shell prices were fixed, 1949-52, at: Sound grades, £A325 per ton, f.0.b., TI; “D” grade, £A225; “E” grade. £Al25 all plus bonuses. Independent pearlers are selling at around £ASBO for Sound grades; £A465, “D” grades; £A34O, “E” grades.