190 



The Supplement to the Tropical Agriculturist 



OUR PALM PRODUCTS FOR 1909. 



The year being closed at the Customs we 

 can now follow up our last review to end of 

 the year. The jear has undoubtedly been a 

 very unusual one for all our coconut products. 



Taking Oil, which seems to rule all the rest ; 

 first, we find a total export of 599,795 cwt. as 

 compared with the figures for 1908, viz., 670,121 

 cwt., our very best in the history of this commo- 

 dity, the soap-makera' principal ingredient, while 

 it is daily coming more and more into promi- 

 nence on the Continent and in America (U.S.) 

 on account of the success of manufacture of 

 butter or ' palmin ' as it is called. The falling-off 

 this year is not so great when we remember the 

 excessive number of nuts it took during the 

 second and third quarters to produce a candy of 

 copra, some 1,300 to 1,400. Until, therefore, the 

 soap- manufacturers find a cheap substitute, we 

 do not think oil is likely to tall beyond ordinary 

 trade fluctuations. To give our readers an idea 

 of Java's importance as compared with Ceylon : 

 Java sent to the U.K. in 1st quarter of 1908 

 '23,778 tons copra against Ceylon same period 

 3,219 tons copra. 1907 was the shortest copra 

 year in the decade, Ceylon shipping only 1,861 

 tons against other countries 33,948 tons, that is 

 for the 1st quarter to U. K. Take away J ava and 

 Singapore, and where would the soap man be ? 



The export of Copra for the year, however, is 

 higher than last year, the figures being 748,739 

 cwt. in 1908 against 784,522 cwt. this year, 

 or more than doubte of 1907, very little going 

 to the U.K. Russia and Germany took the 

 most, while none went to America,their supply 

 coming doubtless from the Pacific. Were it 

 not for the very inferior quality of the kernel, 

 our export and local mill consumption would 

 have been very much higher. Java sent 

 U.K. 13,464 tons in 1907, and in 1908, 23,778 

 tons. Towards the middle or end of last quarter 

 there was great activity in copra drying, and 

 exorbitant prices were paid for nuts for drying, 

 these going as high as R76 per 1,000, buyers 

 being in hopes then of copra reaching R100 per 

 candy. This is now R82 or only R5'50 per candy 

 less than the record price of 1906—1907, when it 

 reached nearly R87 - 50 and when nuts touched 

 R75 per 1 ,000. Truly owners of estates are to be 

 congratulated on being able to command such 

 splendid prices for their nuts. At an auction in 

 Negombo, about 30th December, over 100,000 

 nuts, not first-rate even, averaged R72 per 1,000 

 husking and carting extra. 



Desiccated Coconut— verging on overpro- 

 duction at end cf 1908 with' the 4,000,000 lb. in- 

 crease over the record export of 1907— shows a 

 falling-off of over 1,754,C32 lb., that is taking our 

 tabulated figures for 1908 or 27,602,624 lb. against 

 this year's total of 25,848,592 lb. export. This 

 year, now under review, started very badly with 

 but a poor demand and when prices were very 

 low, caused no doubt by the big holdings in 

 Europe and America, During last quarter, too, 



business was very dull— the trade no doubt 

 having large supplies. In this the mills also 

 felt the pinch of a very poor outturn, it taking 

 from April to September nearly 3$ nuts to 

 produce 1 lb. of desiccated nut. When this pro- 

 duct is in demand, prices seem to follow oil and 

 copra fairly well, but when holdings abroad are 

 heavy nothing — not even wild rumours of any 

 short nut crops, or shortshipments — will raise 

 its price, which, bad as the local market 

 is, is generally from | cent to 5 cent ahead of 

 C.I.F. offers from Europe, so that local sales 

 are on the increase when the seller gets paid 

 at onco, We happen to know of a desiccating 

 mill where it took nearly 8 per cent more nuts 

 to produce a case of 130 lb. in 1909 than in 1908. 

 This will give an idea of the inferiority of our 

 nuts during the year under review. 



In Nuts in Shell — we have a heavy falling-off, 

 our export table showing 18,405,186 nuts against 

 21,023,853 in 1908, by far our greatest shipment 

 of the year, the largest number going to U.K., 

 Egypt and Germany. The demand for nuts for 

 shipping is generally very steady, and it only 

 falls oft' when oil and copra go up and the 

 demand for nuts for drying increases. Nuts 

 have to be specially husked for shipping with 

 sufficient husk left on to preserve the eyes. 



There is a falling-off in Poonac as com- 

 pared with 1908, the figures being 254,547 cwt. 

 against 303,713 cwt. in 1908. As we pointed 

 out before, the Copra crushing at home enables 

 people to secure their cattle food poonac 

 cheaper than they can procure it here and what 

 we ship irom Ceylon is the result of local 

 milling and native chekoos after providing for 

 local demand. 



We have very little change to report in Coir 

 beyond that yarn and fibre are both consider- 

 ably short of 1908. Many mills recently shut 

 down have not resumed work, and those that are 

 working now are going very slow. There is a 

 decided improvement in demand and price. 

 Encouraged by the success of a fevv mills well 

 situated for husk, several new mills were put up, 

 but some have, to this day, not started work. 



Reviewing the whole Coconut enterprise, it is 

 most satisfactory to note that, while the blee- 

 ding disease is still with us, it is very amenable 

 to Mr. Petchs treatment, and the most exper- 

 ienced planters have little fear of it. Nor do 

 we see much chance of the demon " Overpro- 

 duction " ever overtaking this enterprise. The 

 present high price of oil, many predict, has 

 come to stay. One thing is, we think, bound 

 to take place, and that is, a better system of 

 manuring and tilling of the gardens, the poorest 

 villager being quite alive to the fact that their 

 crops can be increased by from 50 to 100 per 

 cent and even then there is lots of room for such 

 an increase in production. What they do re- 

 quire is cheaper money, many of the gardens 

 being heavily involved to the Natucotta Chetties 

 with their crushing rates of interest. Many of 

 the well-to-do proprietors are manuring more 

 than they ever did. 



