NEWS
406
Vol. 12, No. 22
EDITION
Government Policies Affect Vegetable-Oil Output OTTO W I L S O N , 3025 Fifteenth St., Washington, D. C.
T H E EFFECTS of two government policies are clearly to be seen in the returns from the vegetable-oil industry of the last few months. One of these policies is the federal cotton-restriction campaign and the other is the placing of a tax o n coconut oil. Chiefly on account of these factors the total production of crude vegetable oils (including cottonseed, coconut, corn, linseed, and several minor oils) in the United States in t h e September quarter of the present year was the lowest for that quarter since 1924. The second 'quarter, ending with June, made a similar record. Total production in the first nine months of 1934 was also the lowest in ten years, and cottonseed-oil production in June, and copra and coconut-oil imports and production in August and September, registered the lowest marks in many years. On the other hand, the coconut-oil tax brought a shift t o refined cottonseed oil which sent the consumption of t h e latter commodity to record-breaking heights in the September quarter, eating heavily into stocks. Prices likewise almost doubled in t h e course of a few months.
Production of refined cottonseed oil in the September quarter 171,776,000 pounds, did not differ greatly from that in. the corresponding quarters of 1932 and 1933, but consumptioxi and stocks showed startling changes. Factory consumption was reported as 381,728,000 pounds, a record figure. I n 1933 third-quarter consumption was 272,914,000 pounds, and the quarterly average for many years back has been well below 300,000,000 pounds. MILLIONS OF POUNDS
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160 MILLIONS OF POUNDS 12.001
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I I I I I J T M A H J
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1930 M93I * 19321
1933
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