Stockpile of wool starts to dwindle

Press, 24 June 1981, Page 26

Stockpile of wool starts to dwindle

PA Wellington The Wool Board’s huge wool stockpile is beginning to dwindle as a result of the upturn in the market. The board was forced to buy heavily at auction this year to prop up the market, but is now buying only small amounts and is selling" more. At its highest point early in June, nearly 357,000 bales were stockpiled, compared with 114,000 at the beginning of the season last July. Now it is down to about 350,000, and sales continue to exceed purchases; says the board.

New promotion policies adopted by the International Wool Secretariat giving a 'much greater emphasis to the promotion of the coarser wools will also help, to reduce the stockpile.

Coarser wools make up the bulk of New Zealand’s clip. The I.W.S. is a Londonbased wool promotion and research organisation of which New Zealand is a member. The chairman of the board, Mr Doug Mcllraith, who is also vice-president of the 1.W.5., said after returning from the secretariat's London meeting last week that it was well aware of New Zealand's big stockpile. The secretariat had made detailed plans to deal with it, he said. The lowest point of the season, from the board's point of view, was in a combined Christchurch-Duncdin-Invercargill sale in March. The board bought 40 per cent of the offering, and

bid on 93 per cent. , With the improvement in prices and demand over the last two months or so, however, the board’s buying and bidding had fallen right back. At the Napier sale last week it bought only a little more than 3 per cent, and bid on 13.8 per cent. The board reports that sales to New Zealand exporters are fetching prices either at or above the ruling market rates. The wool stockpile will eventually be sold for fair prices and without disrupting the market, the board believes. Officials say that the stockpile is still nowhere near as big as the record 707,000 bales of the 1966-67 season.