WOOL OVERHEADS RISING

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 1

WOOL OVERHEADS RISING

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, Mar. 16. The annual bill for shearing, marketing and shipping the wool clip is £47 million, and the cost per lb rose 4.8 per cent last season, the chairman of the Wool Board (Mr J. Acland) said today. Addressing the board’s electoral committee, he said

costs did not drop with rising production. He called for every possible effort to improve standards and keep costs down. The £47 million was made up of charges incurred in many ways and it would not be right to display it as a great millstone around the neck of the industry. It was as much a part of farming operations as buying rams. The figure emphasised the costs that had to be covered: production costs—which had risen more steeply in the last two years—and a reasonable profit to the grower, the cost of shearing, sale and freight,

and finally mill preparation up to a state of readiness comparable to synthetics. “Wool must reach this at a price which enables the manufacturer to cover all subsequent processing charges and make his own profit,” said Mr Acland. “And .it must do all this in the face of rising factory costs and falling synthetic prices.” “If, in order to produce more, we lower the standards and hence the average price, the burden of these costs increases. “It cost no less to market a badly bred or otherwise inferior wool at a low price

than a wool of better style at a good price. “There is a powerful inducement for us to raise standards and lift the value of the clip.” The cost a bale rose from £2l 10s in 1964-65 to £22 10s in 1965-66, while the cost per lb rose from Is 3}d in 1964-65 to Is 4|d. Total wool costs in the last two seasons were:-

1964-85 1965-66 £ $ Shearing 16,080,000 18,240,000 Selling 14,720,000 16,590,000 Freight .. 9,550,000 11,970,000 Total all costs 40,480,000 46,970,000