WOOL CLOTH OUTPUT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 26

WOOL CLOTH OUTPUT

Soviet Claims Largest (Special Crspdt N.Z.P.A.) - LONDON, Nov. 27. By achieving an increase of about 20 per cent since 1955. Russia claimed to have become the world's largest producer of wool cloth, exceeding for the first time the vast output of the United States, says the “Yorkshire Post” wool correspondent. Russia, he added, claimed a 1960 wool cloth output of 525 million square yards compared with 476 million square yards by the United States and 398 million by Britain, the third largest producer but largest exporter of these goods, at least in terms of value. Whether complete validity can be accorded the Russian claim is a point on which views may differ, partly because there is little information about the types of goods included, the correspondent says. Russian production of raw wool is less than half the Australian total of 1616 million lb greasy, though Russia’s 776 million lb greasy makes her the second largest producer, with an annual clip almost as large as the combined wool output of New Zealand and South Africa and more than that of Argentina and Uruguay together. It becomes clear that any

assessment of the world wool situation and outlook needs to take an increasingly close account of Russia’s actual and prospective future as a producer and consumer of wool, the correspondent says.