oducer Of Cocoa
p. 145 · Read in the full issue
Is Could Be
Onomic Factor
ji To Become oducer Of Cocoa
HE Colony of Fiji will begin ex porting cocoa before the end of 1958. , - Vbout 30 villages have areas ot acres or more planted under
•oa The Agriculture Department
w reports that 1,356 acres are der cocoa, owned by 526 farmers, ropeans are interested—one com ny has planted up 200 acres Fijians represent 93 per cent, of r°h a e B FUian S s are showing a lively erest in the new crop. The De rtment is supplying see dlmgs to em from 10 nurseries,” f ound the mam islands of Viti vu, Vanua Levu and Taveum The Indians do not seem in
rested—lndian agriculture is con
med more with sugar-cane and The two South Pacific Territories iich now produce cocoa on a large
ale, and profitably,
imoa and New Guinea; and it has sen noted that the best cocoa in ,th countries comes from areas tiich carry much “volcanic soil, ji has no history of recent volcanic jtivity; but the experts say that ie soil, in some parts, is very suit )le. [IHE cocoa production of Samoa L and New Guinea, before World far 11, was modest. There was a larket, but it was not exciting— mfectionary manufacturers every here based their buying on irmulae which called mostly for ;est African cocoa beans.
World War 11, and developments hich followed, upset all that, amoa, which seldom sold more dan £50,000 worth of cocoa per nnum prior to 1940, had a revenue f one million pounds per annum rom cocoa by the mid-fifties. New Guinea’s cocoa output was worth round £lO,OOO p.a. before the war; iy the mid-fifties it was around 250,000, and increasing.
Under the stimulus of high prices, he world’s production of cocoa has :ept on growing. The price in very ecent years slumped from around ;500 per ton to about £225; but even a £225 it was profitable. It now lag climbed back to over £3po per
;on, and is improving.
Cocoa-growing is a pleasant as veil as a profitable occupation; so, vhile the price remains at oyer £250 per ton, production must in crease—until, some day, it may over bake demand.
But that day is not in sight, yet; and meanwhile cocoa has over coco nuts the advantages that it can
be brought to production in half the time of coconuts; it can be easily- handled with virtually un skilled labour; and the world de mand shows no sign of petering out.
Cocoa production may become an important political as well as an economic factor in Fiji.
Much Governmental thought and energy now is being concentrated on a quick change-over in Fijian community life —from the present communal village system to an in dividualistic system calculated to stand up against the thrust of the lapidly growing Indian population.
The cultivation of bananas (now a big industry) and of cocoa by the Fijian village landowners may be the answer.