Barley buyers offer higher prices

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 2

Barley buyers offer higher prices

Three buyers of South Island barley announced price increases yesterday. The 'canterbury (New Zealand) Malting Company offered $145 a tonne for acceptable grade barley, a consortium of South Island grain merchants offered $l4O a tonne delivered to port, and the South Island export barley pool also offered $l4O a tonne.

The general manager of the malting company (Mr H. P. Kearney) said the price increase (from $135 a tonne) would make the company more competitive at a .time when increased prices were being paid for all cereal crops. He was confident that the company would get enough barley to fulfill its requirements. Any surplus would be exported. , The price for barley with 6 per cent or more screenings would be reduced $1 a tonne for every percentage point up to 15 per cent. For barley with screenings between 16 per cent and 20

per cent the price would be $135 a tonne. The company would retain the option of buying barley with more than 20 per cent screenings also for $135 a tonne.

A spokesman for the merchants’ consortium, Mr H. Lampen-Smith, said the merchants’ new price reflected international and domestic demand for barley and increasing f.o.b. prices. The increase showed the merchants’ resolve to support the South Island barley industry.

The chairman of the export barley pool, Mr Robertson, said the new price related to barley in the No. I pool and a final announcement of the price would be made in the next week when contracts were available. The price might exceed $l4O. The No. 2 pool, which would not be sold until nearer delivery, would not offer a fixed price to growers. The directors believed that the No. 2 pool would show a premium over the No. 1 pool.