Years ago (2002 or so) I had a speaker show up like this with white fuzz (styrofoam shredded perhaps) on it. Contacted Dr. Decibel @ Celestion. He said the foam would be a problem for equal movement of the cone in relation to where there was no white gunk on the cone.
Said to get tweezers, remove as much as possible, then get acetone and an old toothbrush, dip the brush lightly in the acetone and brush away the rest of the white foam/gunk, or whatever.
He said to do it a little at a time so you didn't remove all of the doping. The one I got sounded better after I did this, I'll give him that. But it looks like poor packing on the part of whoever got that speaker to you, since Celestion speakers USUALLY are packed in cardboard boxes that are tan inside, not white.
FWIW