CANTERBURY MARKETS

Evening Star, Issue 21642, 10 February 1934, Page 11

CANTERBURY MARKETS

; [Per United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, February 9. The week has been a quiet one in the grain and produce markets, except that there has been a good deal of interest in tiie potato section. Wheat deliveries have fallen off owing to the rain. Fowl wheat has : been a shade better, owing to the good demand for prompt, and lias advanced by halfpenny to 3s 6fcd. No estimate is yet possible of the yields of milling wheat, because what has passed through merchants’ hands has shown very great variation. The fears of low quality are not altogether borne out, as the quality is generally good, though not up to the standard of last year. There has been more inquiry from the North Island for seeds, but a very few orders are forthcoming. In most cases farmers’ ideas of the values of their new season’s produce are too high for merchants, and this has been a bar to business. Farmers expect about 4s per bushel for ryegrass, but merchants consider the value to be not more than 3s 6d. Very little Peninsula cocksfoot is yet ottered. One line is reported to have been sold at 10]d, but this price is too high for most merchants. Uucleaned cocksfoot at 10Jd would mean that dressed seed for sale in the North Island would cost the purchaser about Is Gd, a price which merchants consider too high. The crop is estimated to be about t\vo-thirds of last year’s. The white clover crop is threshing out disappointingly, the yield being light and the quality indifferent. Merchants arc not keen to buy at present.

The potato market has firmed, but it is expected that a good price will be forthcoming to the grower this season. The present quotations to farmers on trucks are £3 for Whites, £3 7s 6d for Sutton’s Supreme, and £3 10s for Dakotas, for April-May-Jnne. The very few prompts available are worth £5 on trucks. There have been dealings ill July-Angust-September at £5 10s. The crop prospects in Canterbury are good. The onion market is not strong. Values are £2 15s to £3 on trucks for prompt, and £2 10s for March-April delivery.