Barley price increase

Press, 16 June 1978, Page 14

Barley price increase

The price for all varieties of barley accepted for malting from next year’s harvest has been increased by $5 per tonne to $llO per tonne, the general manager of the Canterbury N.Z. Malting Company Ltd, Mr H. P. Kearney, announced this week.

The area to be grown under contract in the coming season is also to be increased significantly — by about 20 per cent. One variety — Rupe formerly known as Research — is to be phased out altogether. Mr Kearney said it had been grown last season only in the Ellesmere district. It was recognised that some growers would be disappointed as they had been quite happy with it for a number of years, but the company was finding that there were other varieties that were performing better during the malting process. Zephyr would remain the major variety and would occupy about 80 per cent of the area sown.

The two recently released varieties, Mata and Manapou, would be increased, with the area of Mata being about three times that of Manapou.

Mr Kearney noted that barley had performed very well on farms in the last two seasons. Barley harvested in 1977 had averaged 67 bushels to the acre (3.75 tonnes per ha) compared with an average far the previous 10 years

of 50 bushels (2.79 tonnes per ha). And it looked as though the average from the latest harvest would be about 74 bushels to the acre or 4.13 tonnes to the ha. These averages were calculated by dividing the area sown into the quantity accepted for malting. Looking at the reasons for this improvement in performance, Mr Kearney said that there had been a very good demand from growers for contracts and as a result merchants had been able to place contracts with growers who were more likely to be able to meet the standard. They were now getting a much lower proportion of rejects. Also with the ease of adjustment of header harvesters these days they were nett having the percentage of rejections due to damaged grain that they had had in the past. New varieties were also a factor, and a factor that they had not recognised in the past was the worth of irrigation and this year they were endeavouring to ascertain more accurately the percentage of the crop which was irrigated. They were getting very acceptable barley from crops that had been irrigated — the grain was well filled and nitrogen levels were low, which was very good as far as as they were concerned. Disease control had also been a contributing factor. Mr Kearney said that they had now been able to export surplus barley carried forward from the 1977 harvest and also the surplus from the most recent harvest. They would now be only carrying forward what they "felt was sufficient to protect themselves against a late harvest and dormancy that barley frequently suffered from. Consequently they would be in a position at harvest time next year to accept prompt delivery of a much greater tonnage

than in the two previous seasons.

Exports of barley this year had amounted to more than 45,000 tonnes Mr Kearney said that much had been heard recently about possible difficulties of getting sheep meats into Europe, and a similar situation applied to entry of grain into the European Economic Community. The tariff was a really serious obstacle to New Zealand exporters - being competitive. He said he had been pleased to hear that the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Taiboys, had referred to “agricultural products” in speaking about trading difficulties and they were hopeful that he was talking about grains also and that he would be having discussions about them too. These tariffs, Mr Kearney said, were adjusted to make third countries uncompetitive. Consequently to do business third country produce had to have something that would be a bonus to the buyer, and all that they could offer was purity of strain and also “high germinative energy.” Mr Kearney said that there would be a change in the basis of payments for screenings in the coming season. Whereas last season there had been a deduction of $1.40 per tonne for each one per cent of screenings above 5 per cent, this deduction had now been increased to $2.

Screenings were undergrade barley and the market for this was unattractive, particularly when it came to export. Quality standards for export were much tighter than the company expected its growers to meet, so that they could take only selected lines when they were delivering for export shipments. In other respects the terms for the next crop would be unchanged, except that in the case of spread payments interest paid on the balance owing would be increased from 8| per cent to 9 per cent. Mr Kearney said that spread of payments only applied to barley delivered prompt at harvest time.