Markets For Ng Peanuts
p. 136 · Read in the full issue
There May Be Other
Officialdom’s Late Thoughts On Australian Prospects
IT was rumoured in Sydney at the end of May that another ex pert was on his way to New Guinea, this time on instructions from the Territories Department, Canberra, to investigate the peanut industry and advise growers on im proved marketing methods.
Officers of the Department’s Syd ney office, on June 1, said that they had no knowledge of any such per son being sent to NG.
According to the rumour, the De partment is concerned at the dwindling market for NG nuts in Australia. This is no doubt true, because with Kingaroy nuts now being supplied in something more than plentiful quantities, NG nuts are all but unsaleable. Small quantities of uniform kernels are selling at up to 1/6 lb, and smaller quantities of nuts in shell at 1/- lb, with offers at lOd.
The writing has been on the wall for some time. If the Department’s expert has gone to the Territory, he has arrived far too late to do any good this season, and perhaps next. He should have taken his advice there several seasons ago when it was seen that the Territory nuts would have to be greatly im
proved in quality and appearance to stand a chance on the Australian market when plantings in Queens land and northern NSW were in creased.
Furthermore, the Queensland Peanut Board is virtually Aus tralia’s peanut importing authority.
It advises the Commonwealth Gov ernment on the likely consumption of nuts and estimates the local crops, and imports are allowed accordingly. The same Board has vastly increased the acreage under nuts in Queensland.
Northern NSW growers are very anxious to keep Australia a preserve for local growers and there was considerable agitation from them, a year ago, to prohibit imports.
Other Markets For Ng
Nuts
There is a considerable local market around Rabaul, NG, for local grown peanuts, and probably there is as well in other centres.
At the same time, one Rabaul agent, in May, was interested in buying local peanuts for shipment to Belgium. He was quoting 1/6 f.o.b. Rabaul. This is a far better price than is ever likely to be ob tained in Australia.
The Continental market is one worth exploring. The UK Govern ment must have had some idea of its potential when it launched, soon after the war, its now in glorious (and defunct) “groundnut scheme” in Africa.