WOOL PRICE FACTOR

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 9

WOOL PRICE FACTOR

A big factor in the current weakness of the wool market—possibly more important than the swing to synthetics because of higher wool prices last season—has been the feeding on to the market of supplies held over from last season by particularly the Argentine, and to some extent Uruguay. Professor B. P. Philpott, professor of agricultural economics at Lincoln College, said this week that 100 m lb clean weight of wool had been held over from last season and as it was now being fed on to the market it meant that there had

been a shift in world supplies of 200 m lb clean. Because it was crossbred wool the crossbred market was taking a heavy knock.

The Argentine wool had been held off the market in the expectation that prices might go even higher than they did and that the pesos would be devalued. The devaluation had in fact taken place, which meant that wool earned a higher local price. Professor Philpott said that the Argentine holdover last season would probably amount to a quarter to a fifth of the clip.