BUTTER AND WOOL PRICES

Taranaki Daily News, 7 April 1931, Page 8

BUTTER AND WOOL PRICES

WEAKENING IN BRITAIN.

EFFECT OF DEARER WOOL.

’ By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, April's.

With heavy quantities of butter coming forward from Australia and New Zealand, while Continental production is increasing, prices for all descriptions moved in buyers’ favour, and it seems likely that they will go still lower. Danish is particularly weak. Its price

has fallen 345. per cwt. since February 14. Commenting on the position, the newspaper Groser says: “Various reasons are put forward for the decline, but it is difficult to assign the real cause. It has been suggested that there was some pressure to sell colonial butter by holders who bought cheaply on c.i.f. terms, also the demand for Easter requirements, both here and on the Continent has been below expectations. The fall may be attributable to bad trade generally, or to the fact that consumption for some months has been on a very huge scale, thanks largely to cheap retail prices, and the stocks in cold store on March' 21 were estimated at 290.747 boxes, compared with 622,018 boxes a year ago. THE WOOL POSITION. Regarding the wool position, the Bradford correspondent of the Yorkshire Post writes: “There have recently been more pronounced indications of the determination not to follow the upward course of wool value until it is easier and secure compensating prices for yarns and piece goods. There is a limit to the power of raw materia] to dictate prices, and it is felt that for the time being it has largely exhausted itself in this respect. “The excitement in the. raw material market during the last few weeks has not been carried into the piece goods department, and it is surprising, indeed, to what a restricted extent there has been any response by purchasers o-f fully manufactured materials to the rapid advance of wool, particularly of the finer qualities. The total volume of the business in piece goods has not developed as one might imagine from the recent scramble for wool, and competition for a share of what has been given out has been so keen that makers-up and piece merchants have not found it necessary to pay more than a very small percentage of the increased cost of the raw material.”