Confidence about wheat

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33671, 22 October 1974, Page 15

Confidence about wheat

Although a recent survey has shown that the area of wheat harvested early next year might be down 20 per cent on last season’s smaller crop, the general manager of the Wheat Board (Mr L. C. Dunshea) is confident that New Zealand will be able to obtain all the additional wheat it wants from Australia. Another large Australian crop was now developing, the harvesting of which was! expected to begin at the' start of December, Mr Dunshea said. “Our full requirements for 1975 can easily be met from that source, subject to a continuation of satisfactory shipping arrangements,” he! said. Since the beginning of the Wheat Board’s year on February 1 last, Mr Dunshea said,' imports of wheat had to date totalled 106,000 tonnes, all from Australia apart from 14,000 tonnes in one shipment from the United States. Only on Thursday night the Kaimiro had finally sailed from Sydney, after being held up by a dispute, with 5000 tonnes of wheat, partly for mills at Mount Maunganui and partly for mills in the lower part of the North Island. The Kawerau would also load a further 5000 tonnes at Sydney this week-end, for Auckland mills. 1973-74 CROP Meanwhile, the quantity of wheat handled from last season’s New Zealand crop or set aside for later delivery has fallen far short of expectations. The Ministry of Agriculture had estimated that the crop would produce about 248.000 tonnes, Mr Dunshea said. At the end of August, the board had taken a survey among brokers and mills of wheat set aside for forward delivery for the rest of the season — and when that quantity was added to wheat already handled from the crop at the same date, the total was 145,000 tonnes. There was a fair difference between these two figures, Mr Dunshea said. The situation had been discussed with the electoral committee of United Wheatgrowers, Ltd, and it was the growers’ opinion that the crop might not have been as large as the pre-har-vest survey indicated, and

( <i.so that more wneat than i might have been thought had been affected by the uni favourable weather for harvesting, particularly early in the harvest period. Mr Dunshea said that undergrade wheat was not handled by the Wheat Board, and a certain amount of wheat was always retained by farmers. At this stage, he said, he ■had not drawn any con- ! elusions about the position, las the wheat-delivery season was not yet over. I Storage increments, where wheat was being held on farms, reached their maxiimum level in October and the season would close on November 30, which was normal. After that, it would ■be possible to assess the situation in the light of what wheat had been handled up to then.

Mr Dunshea repeated an earlier statement in relation to suggestions that some farmers might hold wheat over from the present year’s harvest for delivery next year, when the price will be substantially higher. The price of wheat harvested this year was fixed by a price order, he said, which price applied irrespective of when that wheat was delivered.