Potato Market Firm on the Spot

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 2

Potato Market Firm on the Spot

THE WEEK REVIEWED MAIZE IN DEMAND For potatoes, the market is sensitive and irregular; for maize it is slightly weaker; for wheat it is firmer. These are practically the only features in grain, seed and produce Indications at the beginning of the week were that the local market would weaken owing to the scheduled arrival of heavv shipments from the South. These failed to eventuate, however, and the spot market has firmed during the last two days to a market in the vicinity of £7 10s, through store. Southern f.o.b. quotations have also registered a slight improvement over the week, though the market there continues practically a battle between those who maintain that ample stocks are available and those who forecast a short market. The market is very sensitive, and the slightest movement causes an immediate alteration in price. For the most part Auckland buyers are content to buy from boat to boat. Two Southern boats are due next week with heavy cargoes, but as they will come on to a bare market there should be little change in local values. A small shipment of South African maize has been contracted to arrive somewhere about the end of October. This, however, should have little effect on the local market. Heavy arrivals from Poverty Bay and the Bay of Plenty during the past week have caused a slight weakening of the market, to see the price on the wharf in the vicinity of 5s 9d. A heavy demand exists for this cereal, and a slight falling-off of shipments would see an immediate rise in values. The market continues well supplied with Brown Spanish onions from across the Tasman, and through store they sell up to 10s Gd a cwt. A little forward business has been done in Canadian onions to arrive later in the year. Fowl-wheat is firmer than ever in the South, and sellers are asking as high as Gs 6d f.0.b.5.i., which means a landed cost in the vinicity of 7s 9d Auckland, bringing the through store price up to from Ss 6d to 8s 9d. Barley meets with a steady demand from pig and poultry feeders at a through store price of from 5s 6d to 6s a bushel. Bran and pollard is attracting little attention at unchanged rates, and is slow of sale. Chaff meets with a quiet, though steady sale. Ample supplies continue to arrive from the South. Through store best Southern sells at from £9 5s to £9 10s. Oats sell at unchanged values.