PROGRAMME TO CLEAR WOOL

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31384, 1 June 1967, Page 1

PROGRAMME TO CLEAR WOOL

‘Orderly Offerings’ In Due Course (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.i BRUSSELS, May 31. The New Zealand Wool Commission is to work out a programme of “orderly offerings” of its stocks when the market is favourable. This was revealed yesterday when the full size, weight and determination of the commission’s intervention into the 1966-67 market was described to world wool textile leaders by Mr F. S. Arthur, the commission’s London representative.

He told delegates to the thirty-sixth annual conference of the International Wool Textile Organisation that the buying trade would be kept closely informed of these plans.

Mr Arthur said the problems of storing bought-in wool in New Zealand had been overcome and some small shipments had been made for storage in Britain to relieve the pressure in certain centres. The commission intended to arrange for the scouring of certain types of wool in New Zealand to prevent deterioration and to improve chance of sale. Mr Arthur said the question of floor-price policy for next season was under review, but it was not intended to take a decision until some; time in June in the light of market conditions then. Referring to New Zealand’s customers, he said that while Britain had remained the largest buyer there had been significant increases in

purchases by Russia and China. To the end of March, Russian purchases were 69,869 bales (as against 27,895 last year) and China’s 54,197 (25,673 last year). There was no reason to believe, he said, that this interest in New Zealand wool would not be maintained. Earlier, Mr- Arthur told delegates that the commission, which has already bought in wool worth £26 million by mid-May, could well by the end of the season extend its purchases to 600,000 bales at a cost of £3O million if the present rate of buying continued. ‘Never Contemplated’ This support of the market, be said, was on an unprecedented scale such as was never contemplated when the likely purchase was assessed. The heaviest purchases in previous years had been 47,000 bales in 1957-58 and 46,500 bales in 1958-59. Both interventions had been followed by a firm recovery in prices. But the declining trend in

medium and coarse crossbred prices during 1964-65 and 1965-66 had accelerated into “something of a debacle” this season, although the commission’s support at a comparatively high floor price level had not wavered. j Demand Shift Reviewing many reasons for the drop in price, Mr Arthur s aid: “It is an unfortunate combination of circumstances that the commission should have had to contend not only with recession in the textile industries of most consuming countries but also with a marked shift in demand between crossbreds and finer qualities, and with a deterioration due to climatic and other factors in the general style and character of the clip.” Recent changes in breeding practices had produced a coarser type of wool for which end use was restricted and which brought the New Zealand clip into competition with similar wool produced in large quantities in other countres.