BRITISH WOOL CONSUMPTION

Press, Volume LXXXIIi, Issue 25302, 30 September 1947, Page 7

BRITISH WOOL CONSUMPTION

POTENTIAL EFFECT OF EXPORT TARGETS

(Rec. 8 p.m.> LONDON, September 29. “The increased export targets given to the British wool textile industry by the Government are potentially capable of increasing Britain’s consumption of wool by more than 200,000 bales annually on export account alone,” says the International Wool Secretariat. »

“Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, has intimated that a 12 per cent, increase in British wool textile output should be sufficient to achieve the export targets given to various sections of the industry and to maintain the home clothes ration at its present size. This may not seem a sensationally large increase, but it must be measured alongside the fact that Britain’s current rate of wool consumption exceeds 9,000,0001 b (clean) weekly. A 12 per cent, addition to that figure would be more than 1,000,0001 b (greasy basis), and according to Yorkshire commercial estimates might exceed the equivalent of an additional 4000 bales a week, or 200,000 bales a year. “As the industry has been given its export targets in terms of money, based on values ruling at the close of last year, attempts by the trade to assess those targets in volume of production are necessarily general estimates. Nevertheless, they show that an export effort on a scale undreamed of a few months ago is now expected of the industry. An all-out effort is in progress to expand British wool textile production in every direction, and if the industry can secure a useful addition to its labour force as a result of the proposed official efforts to place more labour in essentjal trades. Britain’s rate of wool consumption is expected to show further expansion.”