Gloomy Future For Copra

Embattled Pacific Islands copra producers can expect little change in their plight in the foreseeable future.

Prices went down quickly after the 1974 boom. In several territories they do not now cover the cost of production.

Mr Boyamo Sali, recently, when acting as Minister for Agriculture in Papua New Guinea, said the indus try was faced with a major crisis.

The PNG Government resisted attempts to increase the bounty of K5O a tonne from the Copra Stabil isation Fund. There is enough money in the fund to keep paying the bounty till August. In December, PNG producers expected to receive prices K3O to K4O a tonne below the calculated average cost of pro duction for plantations and K4O a tonne below that needed to give smallholders a return equal to the rural minimum wage of $8.90 a week.

If it were not for the bounty, prices to growers would be KBO to K9O a tonne lower.

Although Stabilisation Fund money will keep prices at current levels till August only, Mr Sali urged growers to continue to produce copra.

In Fiji, the government pays growers a subsidy to keep the price for top grade at $l9O a ton and second grade at $l7l a ton. As this is a direct charge on the revenue the government is not keen to continue the subsidy indefinitely. But Fiji does have a chance of receiving a subsidy under the Lome Convention through its associate membership of the European Economic Community.

The return of the Philippines to full-scale production, plus buyer re sistance, forced prices down from the 1974 levels. World supplies of coconut oil are sufficient to meet demands.

The failure of the US soya bean crop and the fish meal industry in Peru in 1974, sent up the demand for alternative sources of protein, which coconut meal helped to meet.

The soya bean industry is now back in full production and the fish meal industry in Peru is recovering, two factors which are affecting the de mand for copra.

One Sydney copra authority sees no light at the end of the tunnel for the copra grower. Big mills in Europe have bought forward to June, so any chances of a recovery before then are remote, even though there have been one or two upward moves in recent weeks. But those rises were short-lived.

When copra prices rose in 1974, a number of users looked for alter natives, and some started using palm oil. Now they have no intention of going back to the coconut while there are supplies of palm oil at steady prices.

In Australia, which admittedly does not use a great deal of copra or coconut oil compared with the huge markets of Europe and the US, two main users have given up copra and turned to palm oil. A third user has retained copra, but has intro duced palm oil.

Fiji to boost

tuna fishing

The Fiji government-owned Ika Corporation has chartered a fishing ship from Japan in an effort to step up skipjack tuna fishing. The main aim of the corporation is to supply skipjack tuna from Fiji waters to the Pacific Fishing Co at Levuka.

The chartered ship, the Hatsutori Maru, will carry a crew of 10 Japanese and 24 local men. The Japanese crew will train the Fiji crew in skipjack tuna fishing techniques.

The Pacific Fishing Co plans to add up to 20 longline fishing boats to the fleet.

Japanese cold

water on oil prospects

Japanese oil interests do not share the belief of King Taufa’ahau Tupou that there are rich oil deposits in Tonga.

The king, late in 1975, sent a team of three to Japan to approach Japan ese companies about developing Tonga’s oil resources. The team comprised the Deputy Prime Minis ter, a law officer, and Mr Masanobu Ono, a Japanese who is special ad viser to the king. They took with them a report by the Saudi Arabian Government which, at the request of the king, made a survey of Tonga’s oil potential.

The Tongan team said in Japan that six companies, including Shell, were prospecting for oil in Tonga.

The Japanese companies they ap proached said they were reluctant to undertake development of the re sources because boring by the US companies showed there were no promising oil fields in Tonga. The managing director of one of the com panies added that his company could

not afford it because it was hard hit by the recession.

The two other companies made a concession by saying they would study the matter further.

Big profit for

Fiji post office

A dream of a former Fiji Post master-General, Mr W. J. (Bill) Cruikshank, has come true. The country’s postal and telephone ser vices are now operated as a business organisation, not a government de partment, and in its first year it turned in a net profit of $2,476,936.

Mr Cruikshank, who is now a busi nessman in Fiji, worked hard in the early 1960 s to have the post office become a business, but he could not convince his colonial masters.

In spite of the good result, the post office is not happy. The ac counting system is understaffed and in some areas out of date, and a “total breakdown” is said to be only a matter of time. And even though the services are among the cheapest in the world, users don’t get value for money, because not enough is spent on operating and maintaining services. Earnings were enough to meet all annual costs and a substan tial part of the amount needed for expansion.

Smooth dollar

swap for PNG

Papua New Guinea smoothly changed over to an independent cur rency on January 1. Only kina and toea are now legal tender in PNG, after a long period in which Austra lian currency was legal tender, and a short period during which Austra lian dollars and PNG kina operated side by side.

The kina has been pegged to the

Australian dollar, with K 1 equalling

Sai.

On January 5, PNG Finance Minister Mr Julius Chan said, “Some other fixed relationship could be adopted depending on circumstances

at the time, but at present, one for one is the appropriate one. This is the only policy that makes sense in our present circumstances. A few half-hearted people have been pre dicting the kina would be devalued on January 1, but events have proved how wrong they were”.

Mr Chan said that as at December 31, 1975, when the dual currency period ended, the total value of PNG’s international reserves was Kl4O million, which he regarded as “relatively modest, but adequate provided we in PNG exercise restraint in our expenditures over the next few years”.

He added, “PNG has become the unhappy recipient of the worst economic conditions in 50 years”.