SHIPMENT OF RICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27450, 25 July 1950, Page 4

SHIPMENT OF RICE

Expected To Reach Shops Next Week Rice should be available for general consumption in Dunedin next week for the first time since the early years of the war. Importers believe that the first supplies, which are coming from Rangoon in the freighter Wairata, will be sold quickly, * particularly in view of the retail price (estimated at between 9d and lOd a lb), which they consider is reasonable in comparison with the prices of other imported commodities. 1

Whether the demand for future consignments of rice will be the same as in pre-war years is a matter for conjecture, according to merchants. They point out that when tapioca and sago made an appearance on the market about two years ago, the first shipments were snapped up immediately, but now the market in those commodities is dull. A similar position may arise with rice once the novelty of the first shipments is over. Until the present shipments the only rice that has been imported to New Zealand since the war has been for Asiatics and hospitals. Some months ago the Government decided to grant limited import licences to private importers, in view of the improved trading conditions with Eastern countries. Larger supplies of rice are expected next year, when it is possible that the Government may withdraw that item from import control. All of the earlier shipments are expected to come from Burma, it being understood that no allocation has been made so far for importing from Australia and Siam. About 120 tons of rice for Dtmedin is now lying in the holds of the Wairata, which is due from Lyttelton at the end of this week, Two or three weeks behind schedule, the Wairata has been delayed continuously at northern ports by adverse weather. The ship first arrived on the Dominion coast at Auckland on June 10, and has since discharged at Napier, Wellington and Lyttelton. Two further shipments of rice are expected at Dunedin within the next two months. The freighter Wairimu, which arrived at Auckland from Eastern ports at the week-end, has 60 tons of rice for Dunedin, and the Ramon de Larinaga, which is now loading in Australia, is expected to take on a transhipment of rice from Burma at Sydney. Other ports of call for the Wairimu before she reaches Dunedin are Wellington and Lyttelton, and she is not expected here until late next month. The Raman de Larinaga is not expected to arrive in Wellington from Sydney until the middle of next month, so that her rice cargo will probably not be available in Dunedin till some time in September. Besides rice, the Wairata is carrying jute from Calcutta and a substantial quantity of tea from Colombo. The Wairimu has jute goods, woolpacks and gunnies from Calcutta, tea from Colombo, canned pineapples from Singapore, and kapoc and refined wax from the Indonesian ports of Jacarta. Sourabaya and Samarang.