Copra Still Up, And Perhaps "There'll

Be No (Heap Copra Again"

ACCORDING to a Sydney copra authority in April there will never be cheap copra again. His views, expressed to PIM, were typical of a feeling that is growing in the industry—that the high prices of recent years are here to stay.

If these predictions are right it’s good news for thousands of South Pacific planters who have come through a long era of recessions and booms.

In 1964 the industry earned, conservatively, more than £l5 million for 10 territories, from New Guinea to French Polynesia. In 1965 the return to growers could be a record £16.5 million.

The coconut is the main export for most of the South Seas, and the Islands probably produce between 250,000-270,000 tons a year.

Notable exceptions are New Caledonia which has a nickel industry, and Fiji, where sugar is the main primary product.

For years the traditional market for South Pacific copra was Europe, including the United Kingdom. Now Asia, with a rising standard of living, and Australia, which is rapidly developing her secondary in dustries, are using more copra.

Copra authorities in Sydney give Asia’s rising living standards as the chief reason for increased prices, which have been climbing steadily for the last three years.

Japanese buyers have been taking a small but increasing percentage of Fiji’s output for some years, and they are now operating in the New Hebrides. Australia, which is steadily increasing her trade in the Far East, has been exporting more products containing at least a portion of copra or coconut oil.

The chairman of Unilever Aust. Pty. Ltd., Mr. G. W. Barraclough, said in his annual report to shareholders in April that higher prices of oils was one of the factors in the company’s reduced profit for 1964.

War nerves generally have an affect on the commodity market; thus the present tension in South-East Asia is another factor in the high prices for copra.

Before the war Pacific copra producers were almost on the bread line because of depressed prices. The war brought better prices because of reduced production. Stability returned after the war, with world record prices in 1958 and early 1959.

Between 1959 and 1962 prices again fell, by about 50 per cent., to a figure which to many planters was approaching the uneconomic.

In January, 1962, prices were at their lowest for many years, but since then there has been a steady rise.

Those who had neglected their copra to concentrate on other pro duce are beginning to take heart again, and many areas report new plantings. Rejuvenation is badly needed because, as Lord Silsoe reported in his inquiry into the Fiji coconut industry in 1963, too many palms are too old in the South Pacific. However, it takes about seven years for palms to mature.

World copra prices are now at their highest level for five years.

In an interim market report issued from Port Moresby in late April, the chairman of the P-NG Copra Marketing Board. Mr. lan McDonald, indicated there had been a substantial rise in prices during April.

Whereas the average of the twice-weekly prices fixed by the London Copra Association during the month was £Stg.Bs/7/6, as at April 20 the average for the month had risen to just over £Stg.B7.

He added: “Copra production in the Philippines, and consequent imports into Europe have been so low that major crushing mills are being forced either to compete strongly for available supplies, or to operate at less than normal capacity or close down completely. As a result there is still quite heavy buying interest for forward delivery, hence it does not seem likely that prices will go below the £BO level for some time”.