Exporter Gloomy On Future Of Wool

Press, Issue 32345, 10 July 1970, Page 24

Exporter Gloomy On Future Of Wool

(New Zealand Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, July 9. A major Auckland wool exporter told a big audience of farmers in Invercargill today that he would not ask his sons to go into the wool trade.

“Wool will continue to be produced, but we must now look at it as a commodity that will be produced for little or no return in the future,” said Mr M. P. McDermott. He told members of the Massey Wool Association that they should replace their motto, “toward wool improvement” with "toward wool survival.” To farmers attending the public forum during the association’s annual conference, Mr McDermott forecast that wool prices would not rise and would possibly decline, while production costs would rise, during the next decade Hopes for a future founded on the growth of demand for tufted carpet were not backed by the evidence, Mr McDermott said. In the United States, tufted carpet produc-

tion between 1959 and 1967 more than doubled, but the amount of wool used halved. Wool, he said,, would always be used, but it would regain the status of a luxury fibre only if production were reduced. Mr McDermott’s answer to the question, “What is the future for wool?" was a clear, “There is none.*’ But other members of the pa n el were more optimistic. The marketing director of U.E.B. Textiles (Mr G. Dryden) painted a bright picture of growth in tufted carpet production in Europe. BRIGHT FORECAST By investing capital in the manufacturing field there—even by buying out manufacturers—New Zealand, as the world’s dominant supplier of carpet wool, could push its product to the front in the fibre race, he said. The importance of wool in the economy was so great that New Zealand could not afford to take a “not to worry" attitude, Mr Dryden said. To cash in on projected European demand to the utmost might require an annual investment of s4m to ssm over a decade, but the gains from the added competition and from processing wool to a more advanced state before export could be considerable. Mr M. Corbett, technical manager of the Wool Board, also spoke of a future based on carpets, which were already the dominant influence

’ in the New Zealand market. ! He said, however, that as carpet use increased overseas ■ there had been a tendency for I prices to decline, because the ' cost of the raw fibre contri- ! buted a high proportion of total manufacturing costs. > This pointed to a growth of > consumption rather than , prices. j There was little or no in- > centive to move producers . from the present types of . wool grown, Mr Corbett said I Marketing reforms were uni likely to influence world i prices but could contain flue tuations and lead to cost-sav ing efficiencies. The dominant force in the : market during the last five ’ years had been the plunge in ’ synthetic prices. The prices ’ would continue to drop, but , not as quickly because the ’ synthetic manufacturers were ! facing rising labour costs, an over-supply in some sectors, J fierce competition between : themselves, rising costs of 1 raw materials, and difficulty ' in bettering an already high standard of efficiency.