WOOL-CONSUMING COUNTRIES

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1681, 3 November 1925, Page 2

WOOL-CONSUMING COUNTRIES

AMERICA ON TOP.

At the London wool sales wfiich closed last week the American purchases amounted to about 7000 bales, which was the largest quantity purchased in London for some considerable time, and seems to indicate that the Americans are again likely to be free buyers of wool. Of the woolconsuming countries, the United States is the largest France ranking second, Great Britain third, and Germany fourth The United States also holds a high place among the world producers of wool, and the production in 1924 aggregated 282,000,000 lbs, against '280,000,000 lbs in Argentine, 188,000,000 in New Zealand, 193,000,000 in British South Africa, and 650,000,000 in Australia. The United States was thus second among the world's wool producers. Despite the large domestic production, foreign wools formed over 50 per cent of the United States wool consumption in the period 1915-21, and was about 48 per cent in 1924, while prior to the war the share which foreign wool formed in American consumption seldom exceeded 40 per cejit. In 1924 the United States imported 32,000,000 lbs from Argentine, 35,000,000 lbs from Australia and New Zealand ,and 69,000,000 lbs from Great Britain. How much of the 69,000,000 lbs sent by Great Britain was of domestic production cannot be determined, as she is the world's largest importer of wool, despite the fact that her production from her own flocks averaged no more than 100,000,000 lbs per annum. World wool production and use by the people have made a slow growth in the past century when compared with its more popular rival—cotton. World production of wool in 1924 was only five times as much as the estimated production in 1920, while cotton production in 1924 was practically twenty times as much as in IS2O.