Wool Marketing Proposal

Press, Issue 32333, 26 June 1970, Page 8

Wool Marketing Proposal

In the view of Professor B. P. Philpott, professor of agricultural economics at Lincoln College, the time is now opportune for the implementation of the Wool Marketing Study Group’s proposals—the bulk of the clip being sold through auction after appraisal and purchase from the farmer by a marketing authority—but he feels that a pilot scheme for studying direct selling should be run alongside it.

Professor Philpott made a comment along these lines when he was replying to a question after he had addressed the meat and

wool section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers last week. This week he elaborated on his answer. It appeared from press statements made by the Woolbrokers’ Association that their opposition to the study group’s proposals would be tempered if they felt that acceptance of the recommendations could lead to some measures whereby the major part of the clip would be sold through auction, he said. It seemed, he added, that the brokers could be getting into bed with the Wool Board even if they were not married. Nevertheless, it seemed to him to be imperative that some options should be kept open for alternative selling methods by ensuring that some experimental approaches were adopted to selling wool directly. It would be useful if, alongside the major operation of wool being sold through the auction system with payment based on appraisal, there was also a pilot operation selling a stated maximum quantity of some standard lines, of guaranteed specification based on techniques developed at the Wool Research Organisation, at fixed prices, ex stocks held in overseas warehouses. For this purpose, Professor Philpott said, the Wool Board could possibly use such a co-operative organisation as the New Zealand Co-operative Wool Marketing Association, which already had experience in direct selling.

It would, however, possibly need finance to establish stock holding overseas and possibly some guarantee or indemnity against losses resulting from such marketing. It would be useful if the Wool Board could provide the necessary support in this way. Such a scheme would need to be confined to definite stated limits in terms of the number of bales affected and: in the first instance this] would need to be a small i quantity as the whole scheme would need to be' regarded as a pilot venture only to determine the administrative, technical and economic difficulties involved. At the same time it would at least ensure that some attempt was made realistically to explore alternatives —at a time when the Australians seemed to be running helter skelter towards new methods of marketing —and it would also encourage the development of staff with marketing and technical skills, of which the country was very short and without which any marketing scheme would possibly flounder.