SUPPLIES OF TEA.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15973, 15 November 1919, Page 5

SUPPLIES OF TEA.

SHIPMENTS FROM INDIA. AN ENORMOUS DECREASE. FACTORS IN HIGHER PRICES. A rather remarkable feature in connection with shipments of tea to Australia, and New Zealand from the East is commented on by a correspondent, ( who forwards figures showing that exports of Indian tea from Calcutta and (•tlier ports to these two countries fell from 3,191,3421b in the period AprilJuly, 1918, to 230,9061b during tho same period this year. Various reasons for this enormous decrease were advanced by tea. merchantts interviewed the other day, the main points mentioned being the uncertainty of shipping conditions this year, and tho rising rate of exchange on the rupee. Indian tea, it was stalled, is shipped only from Calcutta’, from which port the service to Australia and New Zealand is much less reliable than from Colombo, the port from which Ceylon tea is shipped. With the rate of ex- ' change steadily rising, merchants were naturally disinclined to place orders without some definite assurance as to when they were likely to bo delivered. The rate of exchange’ on tbe rupee has risen even higher than on the dollar, being now 50 per cent, in advance of the pre-war rate. Another point which was considered to be an important factor iu the diminution of exports was stated to be the steadily increasing preference on the part of the public for Ceylon tfea. With regard to the increase in prices, those interviewed emphasised the fact that New Zealand is now only beginning to feel the effect of conditions long familiar to England and other countries. The imposition of duty on tea—--3d per lb on Empire-grown tea and 5d ou Java and China tea—resulted in a slight increase in the cost, and latterly the world-wide increase in the demand and difficulties of have increased the price still further. Importers state that .fairly good stocks were held in New Zealand up to six months ago; when it was realised that the advanced prices had come to stay they bought still more heavily, but ship merits were delayed for a long time in Sydney. Before the war shipments came to hand every week, but latterly merchants have been holding four or five months’ stocks in hand, instead of about two months’ as before. Shipments are now coming to hand fairly regularly, but the general opinion of importers is that there is every respe:t of a permanent increase in price. The demand for tea is greater at present than ever before, and when Russia comes into the market again there will be a skill greater demand. During the war tea supplies and prices were controlled by tire British Government, 2s 8d ]ter lb being the general price. Some months ago control was lifted, and immediately there was a tre-' mendous demand for better teas, which rose to eery high prices, thus clearing the market and putting tea in short supply, for the rest of the* world. “We are doing the best we can to ensure full supply,” said one merchant in summing up the position the other day, “but there is no use whatever in people holding local importers responsible for the increase in the price; no cue could have foreseen the rise in the price of silver, and even if we could tlie world-wide increase in the demand would have inevitably brought about a substantial increase in price, just the same as it lias in all the other commodities of iSfe.”