Cane Industry From Scratch In P-Ng

Sugar cane grows on all the islands of the Pacific but those which have grown it on a commercial scale are Hawaii, Fiji and the Marianas, now part of the US Trust Territory of Micronesia but once part of the Japanese empire. The Mariana industry was wiped out during the war.

Although some of the most important cane types have been dis covered in Papua-New Guinea and have been used for breeding some of the world’s best cane, no cane industry has ever been established there. It is unlikely that P-NG will ever establish an industry with a view to exporting sugar in a world where this commodity is over produced already, and in 1970 P-NG consumption is still too small for a home industry.

Nonetheless, it is believed that by 1975 a home industry could be possible, with cane grown in the Markham Valley and with a small mill to process it.

After independence in Western Samoa, sugar producing for home consumption was planned and some was grown commercially and processed, but the scheme never really got off the ground. However, there is a vast difference between a sugar industry for New Guinea’s 2i million people and one for Western Samoa’s 130,000 population.

Papua-New Guinea may well develop an industry in the future and could start off from scratch with mechanisation in mind.

The Hawaii industry, like the Australian, is highly mechanised. In Fiji, however, except for the introduction of tractors, little has been done in that direction. Changes are due and overdue there, too—and it could well be that the Denning Report will hurry them on.