WOOL QUALITY CRITICISED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 16

WOOL QUALITY CRITICISED

Recent Auckland Offerings (New Zeaiana Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 1. Wool buyers have criticised the quality of wool offered at the recent Auckland sale. They are concerned at the general decline in the quality offered at sales here muring the last three or four years. They say there is a growing tendency to shear sheep two and sometimes three times a year for Auckland sales, and to a lesser extent in the Napier and Wanganui distircts They believe that if this trend continues, New Zealand could lose some of her best customers. The majority of buyers at the Auckland sale were very concerned at the shortness of staple in almost all grades offered, said one prominent buyer. “Second, and sometimes third shearings are not producing good combing wool and some buyers are losing interest. “At the moment .the practice of short shearing is paying off because the blanket trade provides a ready market for short staple wool, but it would be dangerous if New Zealand lost established customers like the Bradford firms,” he added. The chairman of the Auckland Woolbrokers’ Association (Mr H. Duke agreed that there was an absence of combing wools at Auckland sales. Price “Enticing” “The price being paid by the trade for second-shear wool is enticing, and, after all, farmers are running a business,” he said. “If a buyers’ resistance was created, everyone would be affected, Mr Duke added. Nothing is being lost, at the moment from the national point of view.” He emphasised that it was most unlikely that any firm would bin long and short wool together in an attempt to even prices. He considered the buyer’s comment “very, fair.' ’

The general manager of the New Zealand Co-operative Wool Marketing Association, Ltd., Auckland (Mr T. C. Allen) referred to North Island sales last May when, between May 14 and 25, a total of 150,000 bales was offered.

“The bulk of it was short stapled,” he said. “A position like that could be serious.” The assistant general manager of the co-operative company (Mr R. G. Ashworth) said the demand for short-stapled wool was very strong.

“The trade is divided into two sections,' he said. “One represents worsted interests, and wants good length wool. There is little to interest them in Aucklaifti. The other section looks for the shorter, woollen types, and we cannot get enough to meet their requirements.”