Wool Exports Rise By 300,000 Bales

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31941, 19 March 1969, Page 26

Wool Exports Rise By 300,000 Bales

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, March 18.

Exports of wool for the seven months ended January 31 increased by 300,000 bales over those in the same period last year.

A report by the Wool Commission, released yesterday, says 954,321 bales of wool were exported in the sevenmonth period. The greatest increase was in sales to Japan (a rise of 74,000 bales). Sales to Russia rose by 48,000 bales, to the United Kingdom by 41,000, and to Belgium by 36,000, the report says. It says the commission has sold 5687 bales of stock wool since Christmas, comprising 2228 bales of scoured wool in New Zealand and 2459 bales in the United Kingdom. Of the wool sold in Britain,

3063 bales were greasy and 396 were scoured.

The report says the cumulative average price realised at auctions in New Zealand up to the end of February was 28.9 c per lb, compared with 22.6 c for the same period last year. For February, however, the average was 26.3 c, compared with 22.7 c in February, 1968. The only centres averaging more than 30c per lb for the season to date were the fine wool centres Christchurch (32.89 c Dunedin (32.85 c and Timaru (30.40 c The average bale weights, the statement said, were 31b lighter this season than last.