Is Not Too Bright

ynthetics Gaining a Hold

[?]Merican Shell Market

From J. P. Shortall, in Auckland The general trade recession and outlook, and the less pre dictable women’s fashions, are the influences that will control the future of the Pacific mother-of-pearl and trochus shell market in America in 1958.

tHIS is according to Mr. Paul A. . Rie, who has long been associa ted with this trade as a buyer d broker, working closely with 3 button manufacturers.

Since a review of the Pacific irket made by him last year i PIM, January, 1957) prices for ick-lip MOP from the Eastern cific have remained high, hough there has been some fiine. Trochus has shown a much ;ater fall.

Df MOP, Mr. Rie now says that nand for black edged is drop ig and he sees little chance of reversal in the early future.

Women’s fashions are notoriously ile in their allegiance to any rticular style or material,” he 's. “Our industry has enjoyed unusually long span of favour e demand from the fashion rid. If past experience is any de, we must now accept the a of an interruption in the curable style trend.

Demand for white MOP —the stralian variety—is influenced by leral business conditions more n by fashion. About two-thirds the total product is used for n’s shirt buttons, in which hion plays little or no part.

Total production of men’s shirts 10 per cent, in 1957. If the iness recession continues, there 1 certainly be a further drop in B.

Now, on top of the decline in rail production of shirts, our ticular MOP button industry has further ground against the thetics, which are gaining idily as quality improves, and ;e differential becomes more lortant to the consumer.

"Factories Close"

[ cannot illustrate this situa i better than by reporting that the past six months two of the :est manufacturers of ocean rl buttons in America have ed their factories, sold their ipment, and withdrawn com ely from the MOP button trade Nobody has taken their place, such of their machines as e suitable were bought by mfacturers of synthetic but iscussing MOP price influences

from another angle, Mr. Rie has this to say on the subject of Cook Islands black-lip shell and the ■•mystifying, if not intentionally misleading information that was fed to foreign buyers by Cook Island exporters” late 1957: “During the last few months of 1957 there were repeated warnings that the Manihiki lagoon was to be closed in 1958.

"Taking the story at face value, European and American buyers fought for the available supplies, pusning the price to a record high of around £NZ7SO per ton, FOB, Rarotonga.

“However, with supplies of this same origin continuing to appear in 1958, buyers appetites have cooled and the price has dropped about 25 per cent, from the peak of three months ago,” Mr. Rie adds.

"Not Mystifying"

The situation may appear mystifying to Mr. Rie and overseas buyers—but it should not. They should know that the Cook Islands exporters are also business men, and that they are fully alive to the fact that if the Manihiki iagoon is closed during 1958 —and it most certainly is closed—it would be foolish to sell all the shell in 1957, if the law of supply and demand means anything.

Apart from that, they should be aware of the geographical situation of Manihiki, which lies 650 miles from the export port of Rarotonga, with highly irregular shipping connections between. Shell fished at Manihiki in the latter part of 1957 may lie there for months awaiting a ship—and may not be offered to overseas buyers until perhaps May, 1958, at the earliest.

Buyers should have noticed the same situation in 1957 following the 1956 closure of the lagoon. In any case there is a strong possibility that the present closure may con tinue through 1959.

Penrhyn v. Manihiki

Mr. Rie rejects a suggestion that Penrhyn shell should be worth as much as Manihiki shell and that opposition to the former has simply come about as a result of reports of prevalence of borer in the Penrhyn lagoon. He says:

“Penrhyn shell will not substitute for Manihiki. Penrhyn is heavy, it has a large worthless knot, which adds weight but detracts from value, it has a more concave shape, which is also a manufacturing disadvantage.

“It’s predominant colour is coppery brown, rather than the desirable grey-black of Manihiki.

The latter have recently been favoured above the Tuamotu shells because they offer more surface per pound weight in a reasonably satisfactory grey-black tone—and especially because the demand for women’s fashion buttons has been mostly for 45 lignes and 30 lignes [one ligne equals one-fortieth inch] diameter, which do not require as thick a shell as the 60 lignes buttons which were in high demand a year ago—and which helped push the price of the Tuamotu MOP to such giddy heights.”

The reason for the closure of Manihiki lagoon was given by the Cook Islands Administration as the persistent appearance of shell below the legal size in export cargoes.

Of this Mr. Rie says: ‘T have heard no complaint from the trade about Manihiki MOP containing an unusual proportion of small shells. By “small” I mean shells of sound quality and normal shape which weigh less than four oz.

“I think that a shell, say, four inches in diameter, that weighs under four oz is too thin to be commercially acceptable, whereas a four oz shell that is three and a half inches in diameter will be button -- no Ugh t 0 make a good ™ of course . the attitude of Mr. Rie and the button makers may conflict with that of those interested in shell conservation.

Weight May Be Better

It could well be that the fishing regulations would be more soundly based on a weight rather than a diameter standard of minimums— weight rather than diameter may be a better criterion of age, and the minimum age of reproduction is presumably the important factor from a conservation viewpoint. The fact that button makers have no objection to an under-age shell is beside the point, and does not fy Ji he fishin g of such shells.

Mr. Rie agrees with Manihiki shell divers on the subject of exhaustion of beds. The Cook Islands Administration has ap parently worked on the assumption that exhaustion is the result simply of overfishing. Mr. Rie says: “There seems to be very little authentic knowledge of exhaustion by overfishing. I believe that the shell-crop failures in the Tuamotu were caused more by disease and changes in environment than bv °v e ffishing. In all areas where shell diving is carried on there is

[ think, an instinctive rotation of ;he working areas, as the simple •esult of the workers following each >ther along the line of least resist ince towards areas where the shell irop is the richest, readily leaving hose areas where picking has ►ecome poorer. Thereby such areas ire given the needed respite for eproduction and replenishment.”

Trochus Position All of which seems to make a 3t of sense.

Turning to trochus, Mr. Rie says Dme of the same considerations pply, but the position has been masked somewhat” by the fact lat trochus is generally cheaper lan white MOP, and produces a Litton that sells for a lower price, ut is nevertheless a genuine ocean earl product which carries some restige value.

He says that furthermore trochus the specialty of countries where lanufacturing costs are still lower lan in the US, and this also helps lem compete against the mthetics.

“Japan is by far the biggest user trochus, and Japanese pearl ittons are sold all over the world, tiey even manage to climb the gh tariff barrier of the USA, and rge quantities of trochus buttons the smaller sizes are imported— add to the problems of the nerican manufacturers.

France and Italy also find it «sible to manufacture trochus ittons to good advantage, although those countries the synthetics are 50 beginning to take toll, and I ppose they will gain further ound there. The European untries are always slower than 3A to take up new articles.”

“At all events,” says Mr. Rie, ie trochus raw material market s enjoyed a very good demand rough 1957 and prices are high, lis may be caused to some extent the fact that there has been over supply of the product. ‘Whatever is offered is snapped very readily by Japanese or ench or Italian buyers. The only gins which did not find a ready trket until the price came down >m 1956 levels were the Queens- Ld and New Guinea shells, which ' among the least desirable be ise of their very thin side walls iich yield only thin buttons.

Fiji Preferred

‘The Fiji trochus is the preferred >e of the South Pacific, coming sest in quality and button yield the desirable Macassar with its ivy side walls and flat thick >e.

The Solomon Islands yield a ivy-walled thick-base trochus, ' base is rounded (convex) 1 the sidewalls flare outwards m point to base, making the ulting buttons concave rather n flat.”