Wool

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31499, 13 October 1967, Page 14

Wool

Sir, —What quantity of wool has been passed to the commission on a difference of a penny a lb or less between the floor price and the price bid at auction? What brought this question into the limelight occurred while I was present at Friday’s sale. Two lots of fine wool came up for sale in consecutive lots. The first was sold to an overseas buyer at 44(d, which must have been the floor price or better. The next line, which on its description would have been worth slightly less, was passed to the commission at 42jd. Does this make sense? The cost of carting to and from some possibly remote store, plus the cost of handling in and out of store, plus, say, six months storage Would more than absorb the penny a lb which would appear to have been all that stood betweep making a sale and holding the wool.—Yours, MERINO. October 8, 1967.

[The chairman of the New Zealand Wool Commission (Mr E. L. Greensmith) replies: “It would be necessary to have details of the (wo lots before the exact difference in floor prices could be known. The particular requirements of particular buyers often cause differences in market prices for similar wools. The point about the costs of holding wool is appreciated, but schemes of this kind can hardly be administered unless definite lines of demarcation are laid down. The exercise of a tolerance in bidding on behalf of the commission is likely to be regarded as inconsistency and a weakening of support”]