The business of success

The advance of private enter prise in Samoa over the past five years has been a source of encouragement for the govern ment.

The development plan prom ises that “private sector invest ment will be strongly encour aged in recognition of its vital and dynamic role in economic development. ”

The minister responsible for commerce, trade and industry, Le Tagaloa Pita told PIM: “We are open to foreign investors.”

He cited examples of the gov ernment’s attitude in its plans for an industrial free zone and the generous tax holidays for new companies setting up in the country.

This pro-investment policy is heartily endorsed by the gen eral manager of the Bank of Samoa, Mr Barry Muntz who said he believed the govern ment could now see the bene fits of tourism on a controlled

basis and the attraction of fore ign investments as a vital tool for development.

There had been an increase in business activity and com

petitiveness, he said, though there was also a need to diver sify.

It is estimated that Western

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The old and the new Aggie Grey’s world famous hotel (right) has been complemented by the new Tusitala Hotel (above) as Western Samoa goes all out to develop tourism potential.

Tui Anetipa Lam Sam ... “a good place to invest.”

Samoa has a total of 77,211 hectares of land under tree crops. About 39,000 hectares have coconut trees, 6,000 hec tares have cocoa and the rest is under various combinations of coconut, cocoa and banana.

With coconut oil, copra and coconut meal representing TlB million of Samoa’s 1985 export of T 32.4 million, plummeting coconut oil prices (down from U 551,430 per ton in 1984 to US$24O a ton in June this year) are a major concern.

Falling cocoa prices have compounded the problem and production has tumbled from 2,000 tons in the early ’7os to an expected output this year of a meagre 400 tons.

“We are really very, very worried about it,” said the minister. “The coconut oil price is hitting us very^hard.

“But we are struggling on.

We have no alternative but to push our exports such as coco nut cream, taro and beer.”

One company, Samoan Tropical Products Ltd has steadily increased its exports of canned coconut cream and, to a lesser extent, coconut syrup from TBOO,OOO in 1982 to T 2 million last year and an ex pected T 2.5 million this year.

And Prinut (W. Samoa) Ltd has dramatically increased its shipments of whole coconuts and taro to Australia and the United States.

Western Samoa Breweries Ltd, makers of Vailima Beer, expect to cover all their material costs within the next 12 months from export earnings in the Hawaii market.

Samoan Tropical Products is

the largest producer and expor ter of coconut cream, which makes up 97 per cent of the output of its Apia cannery.

The government has a 20 per cent stake in the company, while the remainder is held by Hawaii-based American inves tor, Floyd Fitzpatrick.

Eighty per cent of the com pany’s export ends up in New Zealand while the remainder is shared by America and Aus tralia.

Samoan Tropical Products is a working example of the many spin-off manufacturing oppor tunities to be found from coco nuts.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that its general manager, Tui Anetipa Lam Sam, won the prize at a Suva trade meeting last year for naming the greatest number of uses for coconut. He listed 61.

Meanwhile, New Zealand de mand for the company’s 420gram cans of hearts of palm could not be met.

The cans retail at $lO each.

But production is limited by the fact that extracting the heart means killing the tree.

Tui Anetipa Lam Sam said that, despite tough competition from suppliers in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Central America, Samoan Tropical Products’ performance was exceeding expectations.

Samoa was an ideal place to invest in, he said. “The ideal investor here is somebody who comes in with his funds, his know-how and his knowledge of the market he is aiming at.

“There are tremendous opportunities here,” he said.