British Wool and Textile Industry Aims at Big Export Increase

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 September 1947, Page 5

British Wool and Textile Industry Aims at Big Export Increase

Special Correspondent—N.Z.l’.A. Heed. 7.15 p.m. London, Sept. 29 Increased export targets given Io the British wool and textile industry by the Government are potentially capable of increasing' Britain’s consumption of wool by more than 200,(100 bales annually on I he export account alone, stales the International Wool Secretariat. Sir Stafford Cripps has intimated that a 12 per cent, increase in the British wool and textile output should be sufficient to achieve the export targets given to the various sections of industry

. and to maintain lhe Home clothes 'ration at its present size. i This may not seem a sensatioiii ally large increase hut must be ■ measured alongside the fact that c Britain’s current rate of wool ■■ consumption exceeds 9,000,00011). >’ (clean) a week. A 12 per cent. ,• addition to that figure would be , more than 1,000,0001 b. (greasy 1 basis) and. according to Yorkshire commercial estimates, might - exceed the equivalent of an adi’ ditio'nal 4000 bales a week or 200.3 000 bales a year. ) As the industry has been given i its export targets in terms of • money based on the values ruling

at the close of last year’s trade, attempts to assess those targets in volume of production are necessarily estimates. Nevertheless, they show that an export effort on a scale undreamed of a few months ago is now expected of the industry. An all-out effort is in progress to expand British wool and textile production in every direction and if the industry can secure a useful addition to its labour force as a result of proposed official efforts to place more l.'iboer in essential trades, Britain’s rate of wool consumption is expected to show a further expansion.