RC Mill Dominates

[?]Pra After 1957

RC Mill Dominates [?]i Position

froin R. W. Robson, in Suva [E copra situation here, as envisaged in the light of the expiry of the MOF contract next Smber, and the resumption in

1958 of open-market conditions, is quite interesting.

On present indications, there will be three groups of sellers—t h e plantations tied to the Big Firms; the planters who now are banded together in the Copra Producers’

Association and who have placed themselves under the guidance of Mr. Les Martin (a long-time secre tary of the Fiji Planters’ Union); and the independent planters—like the Borrons and the Hennings—who

between them control a large section of the total production.

Mr. Mar t i n’s organisation rep resents a sincere attempt to get better terms for the producers through united marketing. These planters insist that they are not going to be dictated to by anyone—they will sell to the oil mills, or the big firms, or directly to buyers over seas, provided they can get their price.

Mr. Martin now is proceeding over seas, and will talk again to Unilever in London (see March and April

Pim).

There are cer tain inherent weaknesses in their plan. To sell as one body, they must set standards of quality; and if they have a mixed lot of good and bad copra-grow ers, that is most difficult. And they must be able to in some degree con trol shipping arrangeme nts which is not easy.

On the other hand, they are taking the only line which gives them a promise of calling their planter s’ soul their own.

The man who sits most prettily in this Fiji copra situation seems to be Mr. W. G.

Johnson, manag in g director of Carpenter’s Fiji establishment, and the boss of the Fiji crushing mills.

The Carpenter mills now are well established: the

Carpenter interests have adequate shipping at their command both in side the archipelago and overseas: they will buy copra in any quantity, from shipload to barrowload; and they have the cash ready for prompt payment.

Therefore, it seems that in 1958 there are going to be three groups of buyers—overseas interests, the Big Firms, and Carpenters.

The more the merrier—and the better guarantee of good prices.

Fiji’s three main industries—sugar, gold and copra—look promising in the future, as far as one can see now.

The Position in P NG

rE situation is somewhat different in Papua-New Guinea, from that outlined above by our correspondent. In P-NG, the plant ers are much more united in out look; and there the Copra Board— by the planters’ own wish —will con tinue to function when the MOF Agreement ends on December 31, 1957. It was believed that in order to “talk-turkey” to the seed-crushers after the end of the contract, it is desirable that it be done in the voice of at least a semi-government body.

In their post-1957 plans, the New Guinea planting interests have had the full co-operation of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate— although the largest single producer of copra in the BSIP is Levers Pacific Plantations.

There is a copra-mill at Rabaul, owned, as is the Suva mill, by a W. R. Carpenter & Co. subsidiary.

At present the mill crushes copra from its own plantations and also from private estates. The oil at present goes to the MOF, the meal to numerous countries as stock food.

The mill does not anticipate any trouble in getting copra for crush ing after the contract expires, ho matter what marketing arrangement is entered into by planters’ repre sentatives. Planters, then as now.

will be able to sell then- copra to anyone within the Territory who has hovers’ licence. Control over the coora industry under the present s|t-up comes through export licences.

In the BSIP

From April 1, prices paid pro ducers by the BSIP Copra Board aie £AS6 for Ist grade copra, £AS2 for 2nd grade copra; and £A4S for 3rd grade copra. It will be noted that there is a differential of , £All tween Ist and 3rd grade. Last year there was a differential of £9 between Ist and 3rd grades.

The object of this is to raise the quality of BSIP copra When the prices were announced it was stated that there had been a great im provement in quality, but last year at least 50 per cent, of the copra was still 3rd grade. The Board considers that it is not too difficult a task for 3rd grade producers to achieve 2nd grade, and that the £7 difference in the price might encourage them to convert to hot air dried production.

These prices have not been unanimously approved. At the meet ing of the Protectorate Advisory Council on April 12, the Bishop of Melanesia, the Rt. Rev. A. T. Hill, put a motion to the meeting that the prices should be referred back to the Board for reconsideration with a view to reducing the £ll differential tc bring 3rd grade copra closer to its real nett market value.

Members of the Council who were also members of the Copra Board abstained from voting, but the rest of the Council members carried the motion. Whether the Board has or will reconsider is not known.

There is about £3 difference be tween Ist and 3rd grades in both P-NG and Fiji. The International Seed Crushers are proposing about £Stg.6 differential between Ist and sth grade: therefore £ll looks more than a little unreasonable. Is BSIP copra so much worse than that pro duced anywhere else?