SUGAR AND COTTON

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 13, 6 February 1942, Page 3

SUGAR AND COTTON

QUEENSLAND PROBLEMS TOO MUCH AND TOO LITTLE: Queensland's Government is conccrnecl about the prospects of the sugar industry. The 194] crop will produce 762,000 tons. Australia will absorb 440,000 tons, leaving 322,000 tons for expert. Britain has agreed to take 100,000 tons, and New Zealand 80,000 tons. Efforts are being made to sell the remainder to Canada. Growers have been warned not to increase their crops next, season. Queensland is the only cotton-pro-ducing State. in Australia, but the industry has been mc;re or less at a standstill for several years with an annual production of about 12,000 bales of lint. This is equal to 15 per cent of the raw cotton requirements of Australian mills. As importing is becoming more difficult because of shipping conditions, efforts are being made to expand the growing industry. The Federal Government has agreed to a guaranteed price of !5%d a lb f° r seed cotton for the duration of the war and one year thereafter to stimulate production, and it is hoped to double Queensland's crop in the 1912 season. However, there is little likelihood of production ever exceeding 25,000 bales because once the war is over the price paid to the grower is likely to be based on world parity, and this is uneconomic for cotton-growing in Queensland. In the meantime,, the Australian cotton textile industry is expanding rapidly, and it is estimated that requirements of raw material next year will total 100,000 bales of cotr ton. Including imported piece goods. Australia consumes more than :5.">0,0(H) bales of cotton a year. Therefore. if local mills continue to make a greater proportion of the cotton goods consumed in Australia. the market for imported raw cotton will expand despite the increasr in Queensland's prod notion.