This Time
pp. 24-151 · Read in the full issue
Second Coffee Conference This Time Some Results
T'HERE were few qualificatiu about the success of * second conference between p: ties interested in New Guii coffee held in Sydney in m April. It was well attended Australian coffee process?
who, between them, guaranty
producers that they would
take all New Guinea coffee the 1959 period; and (b) p a minimum of 4/- per pou
for a f.a.q. product.
THE second conference was; logical development of t Goroka coffee conference, hr January 20-22, which was onlyr qualified success in that only t of the five merchants invited tended.
That conference, however, allov growers to air their side of problem, and showed conclusiv that if there were not more operation from the purchasing 63 in Australia, the New Guinea dustry could come to an unhaj finish.
It was shown—and it came a*j shock to a good many people 1 and out of the industry—that : the 400 tons of coffee produced!
P-NG in 1958, 50 tons were sb abroad, and 160 tons remained r sold at the end of the year. A'i tralia took the rest.
At that stage growers were 1 ing offered 3/8 and 3/9, c.i.f. S;f ney for their dried coffee beanfi Help Was Vital This year (1959), production , coffee in Papua-New Guinea is I pected to be around 900 tons, rise
(Continued on page 149)
50 tons in 1960, It needs little nation to see what sort of e planters would be in if s in Australia had remained jrent to the troubles of the ory industry. wers (who were represented by ighlands Farmers’ and Settlers’ ation), contended after the ,ry conference, that the Aus i Government would have to i stricter import licensing of , which would be a short-term m to immediate problems of al. But, for the long term, sections favoured the idea of rketing Board, similar to the Copra Marketing Board.
Marketing Board appears to >een dropped but growers have me stability into the industry, ninimum they can get for a product is 4/- per lb (although vill get less for poorer grades) ley can get up to 4/7 or pos nore if the overseas price rises ently. (The price being paid >od quality NG coffee in Syd i early May was 4/5 for A 4/4 for B and 4/1 for C).
Sydney conference was well
attended. Representatives of the growers and processors, were there’ so also was Mr. E. J. Wood, from the Department of Territories, who acted as Chairman. The chief of the Division of Agricultural Ex tension, P-NG Department of Agri culture, Mr. W. Conroy, attended.
The decision of the processors to take all the 1959 New Guinea coffee crop appears to have been arrived at amicably enough—these people being, no doubt, fully aware that the Australian Government, through its present system of import licensing held the trump card, and would play it if necessary.
P-NG coffee planters haven’t got all that they wanted, but they got a lot more than they had at the end of 1958. No one is going to make a fortune out of coffee at a Sydney c.i.f. price of 4/- a lb, but it is a guarantee against disaster in the year ahead.
Agents Form Assn.
At the request of the Farmers’ and Settlers’ Association of New Guinea, it was decided at the Syd ney conference to form a Coffee Agents’ Association to handle the Papua-New Guinea production in Australia.
Members of the Association are Gollan and Co. Ltd., Harrisons Ramsay, Pty. Ltd., Singer and Pink, Peter Jackett and Co., and Colyer Watson Ltd. The Australian Gov ernment, through an official of the Department of Territories, will have an observer in the Association; and the F & S Association will be represented by Messrs. W. Mayberry and F. M. Hewitt, MLC, who have Australian as well as New Guinea interests in coffee and other enter prises.
Meetings will be held monthly, in Sydney and Melbourne alternately.
The Association is not a “closed shop”; other agent members may be admitted—if they are approved by the Farmers’ and Settlers and the agents already accredited. The Farmers’ and Settlers’ Association insisted that agent membership should be restricted to those who have had actual experience in large-scale handling of New Guinea coffee to the satisfaction of growers.
Producers in P-NG need not, of course sell their coffee through the Association although it will probably be in their interests to do so; and some obligation will, no doubt be upon members of the H* & SA to support the accredited agents.