Islands Produce

(Unless otherwise stated, quotations are in Australian currency)

Copra

Papua-NG.—Production Control Board price: Main ports, Hot-air, £64/10/- per ton; FMS, £63/10/-; Smoked. £62/17/6.

Sydney crushers pay: Plantation Hot-air, £B3/15/-; FMS. £ 82/15/-; Smoked, £B2/2/6. Australia has 9 years’ contract with UK (based on £ Stg.s9/15/-, 1952).

Fiji.—At Suva and Levuka, 1952; Plan tation Grade (60 points and over) £FS9/5 6 per ton; FMS (45-57 J i points) £FS9; Lower Grades £FS7/15/-/£PSS/15/-.

Copra, 35 points and under is rejected.

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/ll Duty, £S3/0/l Stabilisation).

BSl.—Growers are now receiving £ASB/13/10 per ton, f.0.b., Honiara or Yandina under the MOF contract.

New Hebrides.—London quotation Nov. 15: 94,000 Metropolitan francs (approx. £l2O Aust.i per 1,000 kilos, c.i.f., Cont. ports.

Tahiti. —London quotation: mom.) 96,000 Metrop. fr. (approx. £122 Aust.) per 1.000 kilos, d.w., c.i.f., Cont. ports.

Cocoa

Islands prices are usually based on rate for Accra cocoa (W. Africa), quotation (from Colyer Watson Ltd., Sydney) for which on January 11 was £Stg.27o ( £ A337/10/-1 c.i.f.

Pacific cocoa was quoted nominally on Sydney market in January at:- New Guinea.— £A2BS per ton, ex wharf.

New Hebrides.—Nominally £A2BS.

Samoa.—Sydney agents in January quoted Samoan cocoa at £5.240 (£A3OO) f.o.b. 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.

Jan. 9; No. 1 grade, RSS (sellers) Spot, 41V 2 d. Stg. lb., c.i.f., London (52-l/sd.

Aust. lb. i; Singapore, RSS No. 1, 141 Vi cents lb., f.o.b.

Vanilla Beans

Sydney quotation (by Victor Karp, Tulk & Co.); White Label. 18/9; Yellow, 18/9; Green, 17/6 per lb., c.i.f., Sydney.

Rice

Rice shipped from Sydney to Islands was fixed in May at £6O per ton, f.0.b., White, Unpolished and Brown. (On plan tation in Papua-N.G., approx. £85.)

Desiccated Coconut

Sydney Agents quoted Ceylon 1/6 lb. prompt shipment; 1/6 Vi Mar., 1/6 Apr., 1/5 May, delivered to store, Sydney. New Guinea, 1/6 lb. in cartons; 1/5Vi in bags.

Trochus Shell

Market for trochus shell in Sydney is still unsettled and confused —most agents

state they are not interested in buyi until prices firm. Western Pacific sh price was quoted in January at apprt £l4O per ton on wharf, Sydney, Torres Strait trochus is quoted at £A( (approx.), good quality, by US buyers.

Green Snail Shell

Nominal quotation is at £165-£l7O p ton, on wharf, Sydney.

Pearl Shell

By a contract between Gerdau C (USA) and TI pearlers, shell prices we fixed, 1949-52, at: Sound grades, £A3 ton, f.0.b.. TI; “D” £A225; “E” £AI2S all plus bonuses. This amounts to appro £ ABOO for Sound landed at New York.