WOOL PROSPECTS DAIRY TRADE "BRISK" BRITISH MEAT IMPORTS.

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 104, 29 October 1931, Page 16

WOOL PROSPECTS

DAIRY TRADE "BRISK"

BRITISH MEAT IMPORTS.

CROSSBREDS POSITION

FACTORS IN SITUATION

"Evening Post," 29th October

Sydney wool sales continue to show a firm market, but no sensational advance. Tofday it is reported that greasy merino cold up to 18d per pound, but an isolated price of that kind is of little value in judging the value of wool as a whole, and it is as a whole that the situation should be reviewed. For instance, Dalgcty and Col report record prices for Sydney sales in 1930-31 at 31% d per 1b for merino fleepe , and 15% d for crossbred fleece; but the average price per lb in all Australia •«'as'B.7d per pound for all wools; merinos and crossbreds, lambs, pieces, bellies,.and locks, whereas the average price for Australian wool for 1920-30 was 10.5 d per pound, and for 1928-29 it was 16.7 d per pound. Whatever the record price may have been for any particular lots in New Zealand last season, the same authority. .'states that the average prjee was 5.67 d per pound, compared with 8.55 d per pound for 1928-30. . . ■ Returns made by the National Council of Wool Selling Brokers of Australia §how that from Ist July to 30th September last 262,171 bales of wool were sold m the Commonwealth, which realised £2,545,812. Compared with the same period of the previous year,. the turnover displays an increase of 16,463 bales, but the amount realised shows a decrease of £347,074. The wool sold made an average, greasy, and scoured, of £9 14s 2d per bale, or 7;4d per lb, compared with £11 15s. 6d per.bale, or B.Bd per lb, a year previously. The average secured for greasy wool in Australia to the end of September, 1931, : was 6.78 d per lb, as compared with 8.4 d per lb in 1930. COMING SALES. London resumes selling on 24th of next month and the New Zealand sales will •tart with Auckland four days, later, followed by Napier on 3rd December, and Wellington on Bth December. The effect of the British General Elections (if any) npon the wool market should presently be -risible'in'the Australian sale-rooms; but Japanese activities in the Australian wool • market "are an important factor and one far less conspicuous in the London sales. The wool market is remarkable for its surprises, which so often entirely upset , conclusions based on statistics. The suspension of the gold standard in England bad the immediate effect of enhancing Tafoea in Australia. Now, a little miM than a month afterwards, comes the as- : tontshing political change in the United ; Kingdom, with the possibility of the disappearance of what a big American bank . called "the pall of fear" hanging over the markets of the world. 'But such a political change, if it has the effect of loosening the purse strings I of the fearful (having anything in their purses), will go a long way towards restoration of confidence, but there are cer- - tain stubborn economic obstacles to pro* : great in the way that may take a long time to remove. The improvement in returns attributable to. exchange favouring, the exporter of wool is, after all, artificial, and so, too, are the.' effects 'of England's . departure from the gold standard.' :The , most satisfactory feature in the wool market as in any other market would be a strong demand for the raw material and ability to pay prices for it that will give tUe producer a reasonable return of profit over cost of production. "Reasonable," /however,,, is a. : . tantalisingly elastic term and 'one over the definition' of which ; buyers and sellers are and always have been at variance; but business is gener- . ally, done on the happy mean being armed at by both parties to the bargain. MERINOS TOO CHEAP. ' W the. wool produced in New Zea- , land, roughly 98 per cent, is crossbred, .ranging from 36's to 50's counts,. with , a relatively few offerings of 56"5, 58's. In other words, New Zealand is a cross- . bred wool country. The market for:.such wools then is what interests us. most.' (This coarser wool than the fine Australian 'merinos has its uses, but while the finer wools have been selling in Australia at 'at low as 7%d average, buyers of woollens wholesale in the piece or retail in clothing will naturally prefer it to-goods glade from the coarser, w0015... In short, merinos are too cheap for the good of crossbreds. , . ' ■ * At "the opening of the London September- • Octoberseries of sales the Bradford "Wool 'Record" remarked on the prospect of; ' "very large supplies of wool, especially of ■ crossbred qualities," and the resultant ap-i 'prehension as to the capacity oi the world ' to absorb them. The "Record": recalls ) suggestions made ten years ago that "the 'trade would benefit if a portiou of the ''_ visible surplus were to be sunk in the depths of .the sea, thus ensuring some tort of normal ratio between supply-and demand." The wool journal quoted expresses no opinion on the wisdom of that suggestion, nor upon its justification, but continues that before such a method o£ ' disposal should be thought of "we should ■ try to find uses for wool even though they be outside the scope of our own , trade." " All the time people are shabbily clothed or barely clothed at all in garments of wool or of material into which wool '' enters there can be no slackness in de- . mand or over-supply. But there is an ■ inability to buy on the part of vast , numbers of people in all countries, and , financial inability combined with reluctance' to make commitments any time . ahead r on the. part of manufacturers. '...." New Zealand will have a good wool year ': so far as quality and volume are concern--1 ed, and should be able to put into the ' coming sales ,it» customary 500,000 to '550,000 bales. But it has, too, a carryover of 181,000 bales of 1930-31 wool, -in- ' eluding some wool of 1929-30 clip to reckon ' with. But if the markets opening at ■•' the «nd of next month in London and ■ -New Zealand reflect the confident: mood :<i£ the moment on the British National .Government victory then good progress '.should be made not only with the disposal of the new clip but a satisfactory if not total liquidation of the old.

.Messrs. Joseph Nathan and Co., Ltd., /■fcwe received the following market report . ffdm Messrs, Trengrouse and Nathan, Ltd., ' London, dated 28th October:—"Trade I brisk at market prices, small business ... doing, -at the following advanced prices: . Sew Zealand butter, finest 119s to 121s; . first 115s. New Zealand cheese, 70s per ;.ew:t. '

'TJggs,—Market very firm. Australian , 161b selling at 13s per long hundred of 120 ■."■ The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Ltd., has received the r following advice from its London house, • datde 28th October:—"Dairy produce: > Butter—^New Zealand choicest salted, 119s 'to 130s per cwt. Market firm. Cheese, ■ 88a to 69b per cwt. Market quiet."

The New Zealand Meat Producers Board 'k advised by cable from its London office .: that the shipments from Australia ■ and .' South America to the United Kingdom ' during the first half of October were as follows:— Australia.—Mutton carcasses, , 47,682; Vnb carcasses 146,096 ; beef quarters, 30,100. South America: Mutton carcasses, 34,238; lamb carcasses, 242,784; beef (frozen) quarters, 4507; chilled quarters, 251,248. The shipments from New Zealand (,b the United Kingdom for the same period '. were as follows:—New Zealand: Mutton carcasses, 64,808; lamb carcasses, 49,644; beef quarters, 2455. The shipments from South America to the Continent of Europe Anting the same period were as follows:— . .y^^JS^iotmf.iroKn beef,. 2W6~ta»*