Wool Production Rising

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31090, 20 June 1966, Page 13

Wool Production Rising

.(N.Z.PA.-Reuter —Copyright) June 19. ESTORIL (Portugal), Australia and New Zealand could double their production of wool in the next fifteen years, the managingdirector of the International Wool Secretariat, Mr William Vines, said today. Mr Vines was speaking at the closing session of the international wool textile organisation’s thirty-fifth annual conference. He told more than 600 delegates from 22 countries there was no doubt Australia and New Zealand could reach this target with the current revolution in wool-farming methods. The chairman of the Australian Wool Board. Sir William Gunn, told delegates that the extent of an increased wool production would depend

on the price paid to wool growers.

“We are encouraged to hear that the textile industry wants more wool, but this increase can not happen automatically —some growers believe overproduction could eventually depress prices,” he said. Other Lines “Wool prices will have to be maintained at least at presents levels if wool growers are to have an incentive to increase production, otherwise many of them will divert to other more profitable lines,” Sir William Gunn said. Asked later to comment on the conference. Sir William Gunn said the feeling of confidence for wool that emerged was most heartening. “The textile industry say they want more wool, and this shows they are not going into bankruptcy using it,” he said. Earlier, Mr Vines had called on the textile industrialists not to heed what he called the “insidious siren call” urging them to stop using wool

as their major raw material. He said the industrialists had a “powerful motive” to retain their individual identity as a wool-using industry. Synthetic Market Mr Vines forecast that by 1971 total world production of synthetic fibres would be doubled in relation to the 1964 output. “We also reckon that by then the selling price of these fibres will, on average, have fallen by a further 20 per cent by comparison with present average world prices, and their expenditure on marketing activities will have increased by 70 per cent,” he said. This was why he did not regard lightly ' the rapidly growing strength of this competition wool would have to face in the immediate future. Mr Vines announced the building soon, at Hkley, Yorkshire, of a large-scale development laboratory and pilot plant at a cost of £1,000,000 to accelerate wool research.