JAVA AS A MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 117, 21 May 1925, Page 11

JAVA AS A MARKET

Mr. E. E. Tn. van Blommestein, of Java, reports that there is a great market in the 'Dutch Archipelago for Australian products, but Australians must improve their present, system of marketing if they desire to obtain a fair share of the rich Eastern trade. Mr. Van Blommestein, who is managing director of the Samarang Sea and iire Insurance Company, Limited, when on a business visit to Australia, said that undoubtedly trade prospects were good, but Australian traders would have to adopt more efficient methods in order to compete successfully with the Americans and others who supplied the East. The people of Java had very friendly feelings towards Australians, and liked to do business with them, but they also liked to get their goods at the- lowest possible cost. Java, with a population of 45,000,000, was. a land of plantations, and not a manufacturing country. Already it carried on a fair trade with Australia— about £10,000,000 to £15,000,000 worth a year—but with proper handling a far greater business could be done with Java by Australian manufacturers in such items as boots, preserved and canned fruits, wines, and numerous other goods. Apart from Holland, America got most of the trade in the archipelago, but he could see no reason why Australia, which was much nearer to Java, should not get more of the trade than America did. Australian trade commissioners should bo business men, not Civil servants, and instead of sending a commissioner to Singapore the Government should send him to Java, where he would have a wide field over which to operate.