COMMODITY MARKETS AND PRICES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 302, 19 November 1938, Page 5

COMMODITY MARKETS AND PRICES.

TRADE OF DOMINION. fßy “Penloo.”) The official figures of the exports and imports of the country for the three months of July, August, and September, these constituting the first quarter of the production year, or the new season of 1938-39. are now available. The exports for the three months compared with the corresponding three months of last vear disclose an adverse position as under : s EXPORTS. 1937 £13,183,612 1938 £10,789,729 £2,393,883 Our exports declined in the three months by £2,393 883, or an average of £797,961 per month, and equal to about 18 per cent., which is rather large. Two factors have operated to bring about this adverse position and there has been no control over them. One has been the fall in overseas market prices and the other is due to contraction in production. It must be borne in mind that our exports provide us with the national income and the national finance, and the shrinkage in the returns from our exports means that our spending power is so much less. Hon. W. Nash (Minister of Finance), on his return from his tour in Great Britain, told the members of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce that our standard of living depended upon the trade we did with the United Kingdom. And there is no doubt that is really the position. Most of our primary products are marketed in Britain, and it depends upon Britain’s economic conditions whether market values are high or low. At present Britain’s export trade is declining, her imports are high and the balance of payments is much against her, even taking into account the invisible balances. Thus it must be obvious that this country has no power of controlling prices in overseas markets. The Prime Minister has stated repeatedly that the Government has a scheme for insulating the country from the effects of falling prices in overseas markets, and until the details of the scheme are known comment would be scarcely warranted. Now as to production. Both butter a.nd cheese show shrinkages, the exports for the three months being :

Butter shows a decrease of 841,837 cwt. and cheese a shrinkage of 111,940 cwt. The decline is fairly heavy and it is a question whether there will be a recovery of the output during the rest of the season. The combined effects of lower prices and lower output are shown in the prices realised; the figures for each of the three months under review for butter show as under: - 1938 1937 July v . £959,649 £1,181.850 Aug £926 229 £1,166,572 Sept £1,088,696 £1,3J4,415 £2,974,574 £3,682,837 There is a decline in value of £708,263. The cheese figures are £1,209,516 against £1,331,085, a decrease of £121,569. . ...... The quantities of chilled and frozen meat exported in the three months compare as under: 1938 1937 cwt. cwt. Chilled beef 76,670 90,734 Frozen beef 195,940 232,676 Lamb 579,710 888,362 Mutton 315,125 315,136 1,167,445 1,526,908 Frozen meat exports have declined by 359,463 cwt. during the period! With less supplies available it would have been thought that prices would have advanced, but the conditions overseas are adverse. There is a shrinkage also in the number of calf skins, cattle hides, and sheepskins with and without wool. The bales of wool exported during the three months totalled 62,617, as compared with 68,044 in the corresponding three months of last year, a drop of 5427 bales. The value amounted to £954,137, as compared with £1,615,548, a shrinkage of £661,411. Wool shows the heaviest decline of all our primary products that are exported. The imports have declined rapidly during the three months under review. For the three months of this year the imports -were valued at £l4 494,358 as compared with £16,254,189 in the three months of last year, the decrease being £2,739,831. For the nine months to the end of September the imports were valued at £41,603,670, as against £41,081,590 in the same period of last year, a shrinkage of only £377,920. Tt is clear that it is during the months, of July, August and September that there has been the heaviest fall in imports, and this feature must continue for some time to come, or at least until export values improve. The marked drop in imports disposes of the plea that the shrinkage in the sterling exchange of the Reserve Bank has been due to expanding imports. Customs revenue and sales tax are declining because of the fall in imports. LONDON WOOL SALES. The sixth and last of the series of London wool sales for the current year opens in the Coleman Street Wool Exchange on Tuesday evening, and reports regarding the tone of the market and the trend of values should be known by noon on Wednesday. There are indications that there will be some improvement in values, especially of crossbred wool, but no doubt much depends upon the developments arising out of the persecution of the Jews in Germany. Apart from this there are other factors -which should exorcise a favourable influence on wool values. For example, there is the pending visit of the King and O" on n to Canada and the United States. This being a memorable event, it i e not unreasonable +<"> suppose that fashionable America will anoear in extraordinary raiment on that memorable -occasion. A demand for wool from tha United R+afes is one of the big possibilities at the presenttime. But i+ would be unwise to expect any sharp rise.

cwt. cwt. 1938 1937 Butter 3,468 423 4 310.260 Cheese 320,938 432,878