Average Wool Price Same As Last Season

Press, Volume C, Issue 29709, 30 December 1961, Page 7

Average Wool Price Same As Last Season

Up to Christmas the average price per lb of greasy wool sold at auction in New Zealand was exactly the same as at this time last season—--443d. Total proceeds from auction sales are, however, so far between 6 and 7 per cent, higher than last season at £ 26.35 m because quantities sold are running about 7 per cent, higher at 485,000 bales. At the same stage last season 453,000 bales had been sold for £ 25.2 m. The chairman of the New Zealand Wool Commission (Mr G. A. Duncan), in giving this information this week, said that the season had opened out with prices a little better than at corresales last season—up by Id, IJd and 2d per lb—but these gains bad been quickly lost, and it had recently been taking the market all its time to hold last season’s average.

Writing for the most recent edition of the “New Zealand Meat Producer” on December U, Mr W. L Keen, of the New Zealand Meat and Wool Board’s Economic Service, noted that the progressive average selling price for all wool* was virtually the same as last season, but he added that it had been noticeable that the fine wool centre* (Dunedin, Christchurch and Timaru) had been running Id or so ahead of 1980 average* while the

crossbred centres had been down by about the same amount. As a result, he said, purchases by the Wool Commission at the floor price had been only six bales compared with 2355 bales last season—this was on account of the improvement in the fine wool market. The upward trend in fine wools, said Mr Keen, had been even more pronounced in Australia, where the overall average to the end of October was 6d higher than in 1960. "But there is a rather sobering point to be made here," says Mr Keen “Since the first nine sales Include an over-representation of fine wool centres, we may find by the end of January that the New Zealand average is a shade below last season’s. During January 160,000 bales of crossbred wool will be auctioned, and if the present price relationship is maintained the national average may have dipped below the 40d mark" Mr Duncan said that so far only a few bales had been sold to the commission at its floor price bid, though it had been bidding quite a lot—in most cases commercial buyers had come in to top the commission’s bid. The selling season will resume again at Wanganui early in the New Year.