£100 Per Ton
p. 16 · Read in the full issue
Rice Supply Position Is Deteriorating
THERE has been another steep rise in the price of Australian rice—from £6O to £75 per ton.
It now costs an employer of native labour in New Guinea about £lOO per ton.
The gravity of the supply problem thus created is seen by a glance at Southeast Asia, once the great rice reservoir of the Eastern world.
Pre-war, if the Pacific Islands needed rice, they bought easily and cheaply from Burma. Siam or Indo china. To-day both Burma and Indo-China, distracted by political argument and torn by war, are try ing to buy rice, rather than export it. Siam, until lately, has been a healthy exporter; and all neigh bouring countries, including India, Ceylon, Malaya and Japan, have been buyers.
Siam has just announced that, this year, she will not export more than 809,000 tons, compared with 1,500,000 tons last year. Already, this has caused some panic buying, and the situation is not improving.
The SE Asia food position, like the world food position generally, is deteriorating.
An expert of the NSW Depart ment of Agriculture, Mr. W. Pog gendorff, left for New Guinea and the Solomons in March to report on the possibilities of rice produc tion in those Territories.