Coconut oil will flow in Tonga

While drillers continue jrobing for crude oil in Tonga, mother kind of oil will soon be

lowing through a special pipe

ine - the oil of the coconut.

Tonga’s new copra crushing

nill is nearly completed and

vill be opened by King faufa’ahau Tupou IV in Sep ember.

The mill is expected to pro cess about 12 000 tonnes of x)pra a year into oil and meal, fhe factory, located about one cilometre from Queen Salote Wharf, will run 24 hours a day except Sunday) in three eight lour shifts and employ about

10 people a shift.

Oil Mills of Tonga, Ltd., is a joint venture of the Tonga Commodities Board and Claudius New Hebrides Ltd.

The local board has 60% interest and the overseas firm the balance.

The oil will be stored in two M 4 m 2 tanks, each of which aolds 500 tonnes. Full, the two anks will be worth a half nillion Tongan dollars,

according to Dr Charles Kerry of Sydney, management con sultant for the project. A pipe line, electrically heated, will run from the factory to the wharf, where the oil will feed into special ships with deep well tanks designed for hauling vegetable oils.

The oil will go to Australia and America’s West Coast, where it will be sold in bulk for the manufacture of margarine and many other products,

including jet fuel.

Mr Masao Soakai, formerly general manager of the Copra Division of the Commodities Board, will manage the mill,

assisted by an Australian mill expert and a locally-trained foreman.

In a recent visit to the site, the King pointed out that while most look at the coconut oil as the mill’s main product, he looks at oil as a byproduct.

From his point of view, the copra meal left after the extrac tion will be essential for

development of the kingdom’s

chicken and pig industries. The copra meal makes excellent feed for fowl and pigs. In 1977, Tonga imported almost $2 million-worthy of meat and poultry, and it is hoped that a

locally organised industry dis-

ing fresh protein can help reduce that figure.

Claudius New Hebrides pre pared feasibility studies for similar mills in Western Samoa and the New Hebrides.

King Taufa'ahau on a conducted tour of the mill with (left) Dr Charles Kerry, the management consultant, and Mr W. Stewart, the consult

ing engineer.