NG Coffee Industry

Cautious Optimism On NG Coffee Industry

The future of the New Guinea coffee industry will probably be decided within the next few months when a new Long-term International Coffee Agreement is due to take the place of the existing one which expires at the end of September.

THE new Agreement has not yet been signed but it had its pre liminary airing in Washington, begin ning March 21, when representatives of world coffee producers and con sumer countries—4B all told—met at the World Coffee Study Group.

Australia, on behalf of her Trust Territory of New Guinea, sent the P-NG Director of Agriculture, Mr.

F. C. Henderson as representative, and Mr. lan Downs, MLC and a prominent NG Highlands coffee grower, as an adviser.

Most dangerous clause in the draft agreement as far as New Guinea is concerned was the proposal that all producing countries should peg ex ports at 1959 level. New Guinea is still developing her industry and this would have given her a quota of something like 300 tons per annum.

Current production is over 3,000 tons a year and it is expected to be more than double again by 1965, when planted areas not yet in production come into being.

Coffee in P-NG is grown by native and European producers.

The original draft—as far as this clause was concerned anyway—was not approved and when some of the smaller producing countries had managed to put their views there was some recognition of the desirability of allowing backward and immature nations to export without restriction from present acreages.

New Guinea sells most of its coffee to Australia but there has been a growing market in Germany and Hol land. It is this market that is the most vulnerable and NG’s represen tatives in Washington aimed their arguments at the delegates of these nations.

It is nevertheless feared that the United States, whose influence in the control of the world’s coffee market is dominant, may be urged to buy from South America, for whom the USA in the coffee (and many other) sense acts as Big Brother.

The consumer nations at the con ference were, on their part, noticeably reluctant to welcome the clauses that dealt with price stabilisation at levels at least equal to present world price.

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The next move in Long-tf Agreement negotiations will be 1 fore the United Nations in June.] these Mr. Downs had this to say the April issue of the Highld Quarterly Bulletin : “If, within the framework of[ new] agreement our own small n& are recognised and fulfilled and some form of price stabilisation, p duction control and reduction! over-stocks is achieved, then world’s coffee trade will enter inti brave new world of security.

“However, New Guinea will hi to pay a price. The basis ofl agreement is that each particid will have to make some definite s rifice. Ours will have to be a tc abandonment of new coffee acrea No further land will be permitted be set aside for coffee product!] This is implicit in membership. O trols envisaged will extend to insp tions by the World Coffee Cod executive and rigid regulation byj local authority.

“We are in the midst of a wo which is moving steadily towards j sort of control in other fields. Th is nothing new in these new prc sions. They exist already in sugaf “The future of the Highlands 1 now require something more tl coffee to sustain its economic futu There are still some large areas alii ated and within the control of Administering Authority. It would a wise long-term plan to keep th areas for a few large tea proje which could initiate another beverj crop in this country and serve as I means of providing processing fac ties for the small grower.