FLOUR AND WHEAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21769, 7 April 1934, Page 12

FLOUR AND WHEAT

LIMITING IMPORTATIONS REDUCTION IN MIXTURE PREMIUM IN NORTH ISLAND [by tklkgiiaph—own correspondent] CHRISTCHURCH, Friday An agreement that will limit the quantity of imported flour mixed with New Zealand flour for sale on the local market has been reached between the Wheat Purchase Board and the millers. The agreement allows for a 5 per cent admixture of imported flour for the first six months of this year and per cent for the next six months, and is regarded as a very satisfactory advance on the average of 10 per cent which was general before the agreement wai> reached. In all their attempts to secure the increased use of New Zealand flour those interested in the industry have found their chief opposition in the North Island, and in order to give New Zealand flour an advantage the board last year paid a premium of 15s a ton on New Zealand Hour used in the North Island. This concession has been used as a basis for the negotiations this year and the outcome ha« been most successful.

Bakers have for a long time considered that the admixture in local flour of a certain proportion of the strong flour which cannot be produced in New Zealand is essential and importations of Australian and Canadian flour have averaged the equivalent of from 750,000 to 1,000,000 bushels a year in spite of the protection of the sliding scale of duties. The imported flour is blended with New Zealand flour, but the Wheat Research Institute has been directing mnst of its activities toward making this unnecessary. As it stands the arrangement between the board and the millers is a definite advance for the producers of this country.