Woodham involved in huge grain shipment to Taiwan

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 31

Woodham involved in huge grain shipment to Taiwan

R. G. Woodham and Company was a member of a consortium of grain merchants which, in late 1976, loaded a record single shipment of 20,654 tonnes of barley for overseas.

The barley was loaded into the Greek-registered bulk grain carrier, the “Mairoula.” The shipment, which went to Taiwan, comprised 17,024 tonnes

loaded at the Port of Tirnaru and the balance of 3630 tonnes at Lyttelton. The marshalling and loading of the grain at the ports was undertaken by Woodham's on behalf of the consortium.

This consignment was the largest of a number of shipments which the consortium arranged to be shipped overseas that season.

The. company was to the forefront of grassgrub control, one of the major pests of pastures, when it became the first supplier of D.D.T. in the Ashburton County for the control of

this pest. This poison was the main chemical control exerted on the pest for many years, until its use was banned in, recent

years because of the threat of poison residues in animals affecting New Zealand’s meat export trade. Woodham’s made D.D.T. available locally following researches by scientists at

the former entomological research station of the D.S.I.R. in Ashburton, which proved the efficacy of D.D.T. in grassgrub control.