Copra Survey

Copra Processor

Meets Producer

Unilever Makes Copra Survey

ON an eastbound world tour of all copra-producing countries, Mr. H. D. Howard, a Unilever technical officer representing the International Association of Seed Crushers, spent a week in Sydney mid-March. The purpose of his tour is to: • Study production methods and the reasons for the great variation in the quality of copra exported to Europe; • Study the steps being taken by Copra Marketing Boards and local producers to improve quality; • Discuss further means of im proving quality and obtain views on the type of incentives considered necessary to achieve results; • Discuss the effect of poor quality copra on the production of edible oils; mutual processing prob lems, and the latest developments in British seed crushing mills.

The International Association of Seed Crushers, of which Unilever is a member, has been functioning for many years and meets annually in some European capital to estab lish the position and requirements of independent seed crushing associ ations throughout the world.

Mr. Howard has already visited Ceylon, Singapore, the Federation of Malaya, Indonesia, the Philip pines, Papua-New Guinea, and British Solomons, and is due in London in April via Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

He told PIM that he is gratified with the genuine interest shown to date in this get-together on copra quality.

This is probably the first occasion on which a practical man on the manufacturing side has made such a thorough survey in the field.

As a Unilever representative, Mr.

Howard’s tour was naturally of con siderable interest to copra producers, but as a purely technical officer he was unable to give an opinion on some of the more interesting conun drums with which the industry is pre-occupied at present. So that 64-dollar question—what is likely to happen to the copra industry after the expiry of the MOF contract in 1957, and the role Unilever is likely to play in subsequent events—still goes unanswered.

Ng Planters Meet To

Discuss Marketing

A meeting will be held in Rabaul, NG. mid-March to discuss the continued operation of the P-NG Copra Marketing Board beyond the termination of the British Ministry of Food Copra Agreement next year.

Representatives of the Depart ment of Territories, the Adminis tration, the Copra Marketing Board

and both the Papua and New Guinea Planters’ Associations will attend the meeting.

All aspects of the future marketing of Territory copra will be discussed.

The proposed talks follow representations by the Planters’

Associations of both Territories to

continue semi - government - cor trolled marketing of copra after tl; Agreement ends in December 195* Recent plebiscites taken amor planters returned a 100% vote Papua in favour of a ssmi-govern ment marketing organisation. I New Guinea, the majority was om slightly lower.