WOOL TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21386, 14 July 1931, Page 8

WOOL TRADE

MARKETING DECISION SUPPLY AND DEMAND (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 2. • It is generally recognised that the Empire Wool Conference which concluded at Melbourne last week did nothing very revolutionary. There are some experts, however, who hold that the conference was justified for one thing it, did—a decision not to attempt to combat the law of supply and demand in the' marketing of wool. As a result of the meeting a continuance of sound marketing principles seems to be assured. Reviewing the situation one expert says: .“Had any effort been made to control prices artificially the natural economic law would have eventually prevailed. It has shown its inescapable action in the case of many commodities with which price-fixing has been attempted. The Melbourne decision, made by the authorised representatives of three countries which combined grow 40 per cent of the world’s wool, should decisively prevent those with venturesome, but unsound ideas, from experimenting with schemes, the outcome of which would be, chaos. Apart from all other aspects, the decision arrived at makes the deliberation of the conference valuable to the pastoral industry. Unless an effective method'of controlling the world’s annual production and its consumption of wool year by year can be devised, any effort to control its selling price must prove as futile as Australia’s attempt to keep up the same expenditure when the values of her primary products are low as when they were on boom levels.

At the. conference an estimate was made of the quantity of wool likely to be produced in the Commonwealth during the coming season and the total number of bales that will probably be available for sale. The following figures show how the estimate ■ compares with the total for previous seasons:— Receipts Common- for sale Auswealth clip tralian stores Bales Bales 1927- .. 2,073,000 2,446,780 1928- ;. 2,862,877 2,690,486 1929- .. 2,867,000 2,583,000 1930- ~ 2,728,000 2,439,166 1931- .. 2,942,500 2,675,000 The receipts for 1930-31 are to the end of May, and the figures for 1931-32 are estimated. The Sydney allocations provide for the offering of 517,000 bales before Christmas, compared with 464,000 bales during the same period this season. Sales are to start on August 31—two weeks’ earlier than in 1930.

According to information received by the Graziers’ Association the Chinese, National Government has made available £2,000,000 for the purpose of developing the woollen manufacturing industry in that country. The association is giving every assistance, and may send representatives to China.