[?]erhaps Somebody

Tapped Islands Resources

[?]erhaps Somebody Knows Of A Distinctive Soup?

From a NZ Correspondent \hile Islands Governments give t of thought to diversification agriculture and to possible new \rr industries, many possible Uer industries seem to be passed long as easier money can be made in less precarious regions, overseas investors cannot be ex sd to show much interest in Islands, but that is not to say there are not many openings the small local investor and the well-guided native co ative organisation, le most unexploited field of pos ities must surely be that of Ine produce, and one of the

ected products is soup,

some overseas countries the thing that New Zealand as ms for is its toheroa soup, which i be a major industry. As it is,

it is impossible for New Zealanders to buy toheroa soup, the entire output being sold to luxury hotels and restaurants overseas, mainly in the United States.

There may be no toheroa shell fish in the Islands —and if there are, they may have a very different flavour to those found on New Zea land beaches. But there is no reason to suppose that there are not other shell fish, or other kinds of fish, with an equally distinctive flavour that, with the right promotional publicity, might establish for their parent territories an equally famous reputation.

Other Soups, Perhaps?

One of the items in this field might well be turtle soup, con

sidered a luxury by many, yet gener ally unobtainable in New Zealand and Australia, except perhaps from certain firms specialising in rare items.

Three years ago a turtle farming project, in enclosed waters, was initiated at Ponape, in the US Trust Territory of Micronesia. There they did not have soup in mind. The meat and the shells were the aim.

But is there any reason why a turtle soup industry could not be similarly established?

There is no great capital involved in a modest canning plant, and it would not be expected that an in dustry of this sort would be on a major scale, but there do appear to be very real possibilities for small investors in this direction