Improvement
p. 32 · Read in the full issue
Fixing the 1955 Price: Free Market Copra Shows Small Improvement
PACIFIC Islands producers who are selling their copra under the UK Ministry of Food Agreement, still were in a happy position at the end of October, when (Oct. 25), free market price for Straits copra was £74 Stg. cu.f.
European ports. The 1954 MOF price is £Stg7o. f.o.b. Islands ports— which is equivalent to about £B2 c.i.f.
Continental ports. , , ‘ The free market price has tended to rise in the past month, and if it follows the pattern of the closing months of the last two years and continues this trend, it will give South Pacific copra producers a better bargaining point when the matter comes up for review m De cember- January.
Under the agreement with the
MOF, the price cannot rise or fall more than 10 per cent, in any one year.
Tlie MOF has had the worst of the bargain in 1954 (when the price was raised by 71 per cent, over the 1953 price) but the Ministry is still well on the right side of the ledger over the six years the Agreement has been in operation; in the early years of the contract, Pacific plan ters were getting about half the free market price.
Because free market price in 1954 has been consistently lower than last vear. producers are anticipating that' the MOF will press for a re duction in 1955. If the MOF is successful, it will be the first fall since the Agreement came into operation, although in 1953 the price remained the same as in 1952.
Ng Stabilisation Funds
THE amount in the Papua-New Guinea Copra Fund at June 30 1954 was £470,244. Con tributions (at £2 per ton) during the previous year amounted to £197,100.
In addition to the above, an amount of £1.452,000 is held by the Commonwealth Government this represents collections made from producers of copra between Decem ber 1946. and October 31, 1951, when the present scheme came into operation. The early collections were called a “Stabilisation Fund ; the purpose was to cushion the industry in times of depressed prices. ' Over the years, the com pulsory deductions have varied from as low as £1 per ton to as high as £8 5 - per ton.