Pelt market depressed

Press, 27 February 1981, Page 14

Pelt market depressed

The pelt market was “very very depressed”, a director of the Primary Producers’ Co-operative Society, Mr B. K. Cameron, told a meeting of the executive of . the meat and wool section of North Canterbury Federated Farmers last week. It was more depressed than people realised, he said, referring to the fact that few or no sales were being made of them. At the time the executive was considering a call from its Cheviot branch to look . into anomalies in payments ifor woolly and shorn lamb skins, a proposal that was eventually approved. Mr D. T. Archbold said for the branch that the; average price for a pelt with a kilogram of wool on it was $1.20 and for the wool $2.43 giving, a total of $3.63, which when the processing cost of $2.26 was deducted left $1.37,

but farmers were only receiving 72c for this pelt. The missing 65c would pay threequarters of the farmer’s freight cost, he said. Mr Archbold said that there seemed to be some subsidisation between shorn pelts so that overall they were self equalising, but the companies were emphatic that there was no such adjustment; between woolly and shorn skins. The chairman, Mr E. W. Turrell, said that returns to farmers for their pelts and wool -were not only depressed but quite unfair. A lamb producing 0.45 kg of wool must have more wool than one with o.2kg of wool yet they had the same nil value. A skin with o.skg of wool was worth 2c to the producer and that was before he paid transport from his farm to the works.

Mr M. R. Barnett, a member of the Meat Board, said that farmers-had an alternative if they felt the market for woolly pelts was not good 'enough.. They could shear their lambs. In the North Island a lot of lambs would be shorn twice this year. He said that he would be concerned if a farmer received a bill for a pelt — where the processing cost was alleged to be greater than the return for it — but he had not heard of such a case. Mr Cameron said he would question the figure of $2.43 for slipe wool but Mr Archbold said that this was the average price. The executive, however, rejected another proposal from the Cheviot branch that Federated - Farmers should ask the producer boards to consider supporting the price

of pelts like meat and wool. Mr Archbold asked what was the sense of flooding the market with pelts when they were virtually worthless. TheWool Board bought in wool. Why should not the same be done with pelts? ‘ If farmers wanted the Wool and Meat Boards to support the price of slipe wool and pelts Mr Barnett warned that the support would be ,on the basis of the market — not an economic price to the farmer. • Mr Cameron said he did not think that the processing companies could be described as irresponsible in their selling of pelts at the present time. Mr B. H. Palmer said he did not think that the market was all black. He believed that in the near future there would be a return to the use of-leather.