Wool exports down after bad year

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 23

Wool exports down after bad year

PA Wellington Wool exports fell 13 per cent in the first five months of the wool selling season which began on July 1. The biggest drop was a 43 per-cent decline in wool exports to Japan, one of New Zealand’s most important customers. Total wool exports to France, the Netherlands and Belgium fell significantly, and the quantities of high value scoured wool sold overseas were 10 per cent less than last season.

The Wool Board’s regional director for Europe, Mr Noel Thomas, released the figures in a speech to the wool committee of the International Wool Textile Organisation in Paris.

The reduction was predictable in view of the lower wool production this season, Mr Thomas

said. But wool exports to China had held firm, sales to the Soviet Union had increased 40 per cent and British purchases were up 7 per-cent. He said wool sales at auction for the first six months of the season were also 13 per cent lower than during the corresponding period in the previous year. This drop reflected declining production and delayed shearing because of wet weather, he said. New Zealand sheep farmers had faced, over the last six months, one of their biggest crises in confidence for more than 20 years.

It was largely caused by Government policies, Mr Thomas said. The Government’s firm monetary policy had damaged farming liquidity, with the combination of high interest rates and the

floating dollar creating a strong currency and a volatile market, he said.

Farmers had also lost almost all Government subsidies arid many had to cope with the aftermath of a severe drought which left them with reduced flock numbers at the start of the new season. After the record earning 1984-1985 season, this year had seemed all the more difficult.

At a time of strong international demand for New Zealand wool, the strength of the New Zealand dollar had made its price unattractive to some overseas customers.

Woolgrowers had had to cope with a drop in local wool prices, high interest rates and farm costs, and the anxiety of an uncertain future instead of being able to reap the benefits of their past investment, said Mr Thomas.