COPRA FOR NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 125, 20 February 1941, Page 6

COPRA FOR NEW ZEALAND

2000 'fons Next Month

IMPORTATION BY GOVERNMENT

Use As Feed For Stock

Two thousand tons ol copra front Samoa will arrive in New Zealand next month for use as stock feed and for the manufacture of coconut oil.

Apart from a small experimental shipment in November, this is the first importation of copra to the Dominion. It has been arranged by the Internal Marketing Department. A second shipment of 2000 tons will arrive in May or June and there may be others later.

The chief purpose of the importa-

tion is Io meet the shortage of stock feed, notably barley. In the past large quantities of barley have been imported from Australia: last year Ibe amount was 255.000 sacks. The severe Australian drought at the end of last year, however, has now made supplies almost unobtainable. The usual market for copra is mainly iu Europe, where it is used in the manufacture of soap and margarine. Because of the war that market has almost disappeared. New Zealand’s imports will be of great assistance to Samoa, where the production of copra is the principal industry. The normal price of copra in Samoa is £l2 to £l5 a ton; it will be sold to New Zealand farmers at £S/10/- a ton at the wharf. The first shipment is being allocated as follows: Auckland, 800 tons; New Plymouth, 600 tons; Wellington, 600 tons. The copra will be used as feed, mainly for pigs, but also for cattle and sheep. Its feed value, pound for pound, is said to be one and threequarter times that of barley or barley meal.

Au experimental shipment of 100 tons arrived in November and was distributed to farmers throughout the North Island. Reports are that it has been satisfactory. It is recommended that the copra should be fed dry, at a rate of from Mb. a day for young pigs to 141 b. a day for large pigs, in addition to the usual skim milk or other feeds. Experiments are now being conducted to find whether the feeding of copra right up to the time of killing has any effect on the quality of the bacon. Iu the meantime it is not recommended that it should be fed during the last four or six weeks before killing. Some of the copra will also be used in the manufacture of coconut oil. A plant for the expression of the oil was established in Auckland early this year.