60,000 tonnes of wheat needed

Press, 29 March 1982, Page 2

60,000 tonnes of wheat needed

PA Wellington New Zealand will probably have to import about 60,000 tonnes of wheat this year—so per cent more than last year, according the deputy chairman of the Wheat Board, Mr Arch Beadle. This follows a substantial swing from wheat-growing to barley in Canterbury the main grain-growing area. The cost of the imported wheat is likely to be about $lB million. Mr Beadle said the total imports needed would not be known exactly until next month when Southland’s production was known. But the estimate at this stage was about 60,000 tonnes, compared with 1981’s total imports of about 40,000. The 1980 total was 53,000 tonnes.

One of the main reasons

for' the bigger shortfall in domestic production was a fall in the Canterbury wheatgrowing area, said Mr Beadle.

The switch to barley resulted from grower’s moves into barley exporting at a time when overseas prices were high. Other reasons for the fall include poor weather in the Southland area, and the effects of the new wheat disease, yellow stripe rust, first found in the crop last year. As in the past, all the imported wheat was likely to come from Australia, said Mr Beadle. Australia was one of the' few big importers prepared to handle the comparatively small shipments of wheat to New Zealand and New Zealand millers and bakers were accustomed to the Australian product.