AUSTRALIAN SUGAR CROP.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 March 1921, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN SUGAR CROP.

GREAT V.iELD PROMISED THIS V EAR. SYDNEY, Feb. 15. 1 Sugar consumers in New Zealand , iliould b<‘ interested in the prospects of v .he Australian sugar crop, lieeause, on ' present indications New Zealand will, | j luring the next year or two, he do- j pendant on Australia as well as Fiji for j r cigar supplies. Tli(, erusliing of the 1020- sugar crop ias just finished, and it comes out iit ibout 164,(KM) tons —which is 101),()()() ons short of the domestic requirements d >1 tin* Commonwealth. It is over a 9 .•ear since the Federal Government ' vliieli purchases the raw sugar and sells ! t, refined, to the distributing houses j md consumers— decided to allow grow- | M's the attractive price of £3O (is 8d icr ton raw. The growers, a year ago, ’ vere lighting a very bad drought, and ' . 'inild not take advantage of'the situa.ion. The drought broke about June ust- too late, to allow planting for the 92!) crushing, hence the shortage. But lie' gauarantoe of £3O (is 8d holds, and his year the growers favoured by one if the be.-*t seasons in the history of the ndustrv, are “going for their lives.” ’la lit ing has been on a great scale, and bus far the crop is one of prodigious iromise. The rainy season is yet to ! iass. At the end of April the growers ! i ill consider themselves out of the wood nil ready to crow. | The Federal Government sells the i c'fined sugar at £49 per ton, and it , eaclies the consumer at 6d per lb. This p, llows the Government a handsome irofit, hut it has all been eaten up in last years by the necessity of making / ;ood the Australian shortage by im- g| lortation at famine prices. Foreign j ( ugar has been brought in at as high as

; £7O a ton raw, and yet has reached the consumer at 6d. I ■ The 1921 crop, however, with ordinary Inch .should far more than provide for Australia’s requirements. In that event Australian consumers should -« receive the commodity at less than fid. _| the cheapest, sugar in the world Bri- | a , ! tain has been paying Is 2d per lb—with |. f (lie result that Australian jam and sweet manufacturers have been able to |v build up a great export trade. Only , |(( 1 hist week American manufacturers were p, shrieking because Tasmanian jams were entering that country in great quanti- d,, ties. at M