Copra Prices Lowest For 15 Years
pp. 107-108 · Read in the full issue
Copra prices fell to a 15-year-low in March at the same time as the Commonwealth Secretariat in London announced that world copra production in 1971 was a record 3.7 million tons. These two pieces of bad news for producers are compounded by the fact that authorities can see no recovery in sight for the product.
Copra’s big hope, however, is as the raw material for coconut oil.
Consumption of coconut oil has risen steeply in recent months, and observers expect consumption will eventually result in demand catching up with production, Price of Philippines copra has fallen to $US128 a ton, for April shipment, the lowest level since 1957.
The March fall was part of a steady decline since 1970, when, with oilseeds generally in short supply.
copra was bringing nearly $3OO a ton.
In the very long term, a broker in London told PIM, the low prices may not be a bad thing for producers Copra is coming back into favour with refiners who crush it to produce copra cake, used for animal feedstuffs, and coconut oil.
Fiji's copra producers say the Fiji Government’s freight subsidy plan introduced more than two months ago has been of little assistance in bolstering the price.
As well as aiding people sending other produce from the outer islands, the subsidy was intended as a boost for copra planters, many of whom seriously doubt whether they can
continue producing in the face of depressed world prices for copra.
A . r At Sa ™ savu ’ the secretary of the £°Pf a P, roducers A? 80 " 3 * 1 ™ M J- Rob !" Mercer, explained that the ? übsldy had been of no real hel P ecauBe a . *°P in . “P™ P r,ces f c °f 7 clded Wlth . ‘ be introduction of a $7 a * on s " bsidy for ( COpra - At the Baithe P nce o£ co P ra dro PP ed a ton ’
While Fiji’s copra producers were wondering how long they could survive, representatives of Island governments met in Suva on April 17 to discuss the establishment of the South Pacific Bureau for Economic Co-operation.