Sensible Level

It's Happened!

Capra At That

By a Staff Writer

pra prices came down with a thud in September—to the it level since the latter part of At £Stg.6l/16/9 per ton c.i.f. bn on the last day of Sep er, price can be said to have led the “sensible level” con rs have stated that they re d before they would turn back the alternative oils to which have now adjusted their pro s. this ground alone, it could be tiat the market may now im rove. (On October 10, the Lon- J.i.f. price was £Stg.64/10/- per rid price of copra has been ily falling since April this year, a 1958 of high prices and a of boom prices that averaged the entire year at around >0 per ton. ling prices through most of year are undoubtedly the re >f the high prices of 1958 and when manufacturers more and adjusted their processes to d-nuts, palm oil, palm seed and the like, as an alternative to . According to the consumers, irse, they can make margarine F almost anything in the vege and animal oil line—and have r demonstrated it of late.

Market For Oils

rever, it is not altogether a ided story. There is a market .1 the edible oils that can be ced these days, and the scarcity s kind forces up the prices of tfiers. Coconut oil has some ar advantages of its own, too. [r. lan McDonald, Chairman e Papua-New Guinea Copra Jting Board, says in his market ; for September: . . The peculiar qualities of lauric acid oils (coconut oil ig the foremost of these) are i that these oils will always and a premium in the long i over other oils.” new of the sharp drop in the it, most f.o.b. prices have been ;ed accordingly in South 3 copra producing areas, igh the P-NG Copra Market er and continues for the time to pay a tentative price of £A63/10/- and £A62/10/- for iree grades. ras interesting to note that in September the Marseilles price reflected things to come else . with the price down to per metric ton, and the

price being paid at Vila and Santo down to £A40 per ton.

Japan has been shopping about the Pacific for copra of late, and Mr. McDonald has this to say about it in his September report: “Japanese imports of oil seeds and oil seed products have been showing a brisk increase—up about 14 per cent, over the same period in 1959. The increase is greater in copra, where imports during January/June, 1960, totalled 36,593 metric tons com pared with 24,241 in 1959, an in crease of 51 per cent.

“During both periods the chief source of supply was British North Borneo. However, although only a nominal tonnage of P-NG

copra is sold to Japan, buyers are showing an increasing awareness of our copra, mainly for quality reasons, although at the same time they are not too happy about paying a premium over Philippine FM for it.”

Suva’s newest hotel, Hotel Suva, opened its doors on October 8 An air-conditioned building in Waimanu Road in the business area of the city, its charges are in the medium price range—4s/- for single room, early morning tea and breakfast; 55/- with private shower and toilet; and 80/- and 100/- for double rooms as above. A feature will be a busi ness men’s luncheon at 7/6.