WORLD'S WHEAT POSITION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2753, 24 April 1916, Page 8

WORLD'S WHEAT POSITION

The world's total production of wheat-last year was considerably larger ■ thaii.-rin^the/previous', year, namely, to ' the extent or 109 million quarters. Leaving Russia and Rumania out of the calculation",--'ahd deducting 10 million quarters from .'the American winter ivheat;.c'rop"<sn account of damage at harvest' time/ last year's yield of wheat was '.still; 70; million quarters in excess of-that;grown in 1914, and.of. this 70 million "quarters about 65. million quarters',were.'produced in 'exporting counquantity ; .of ;,iVheat.;'ayailabie •' for export,; after de(leavr -mgi'roser-vesT£h"e same. at, the end as' at of -the season),, in the/United States, . Canada, Australia, Argentina, India, and Algeria, amounted- to-110 million quarters.. Of this enormous.. and - -unprecedented surplus less: than-, 3a. million quarters have so far,;beon; shipped, so that } with quite a moderate'-world's crop, this year, there ivvouldi still, be # -plenty of. wheat for all iip' -fo the',, end ;of, t July, '1917/ of- for .eighteen .■ months,-.-from the present time."; In. normal years,' with such an abundance of wheat, available, prices, would probably .liave been in the neighbourhood of 30s. per quarter, but, owing'-'mainly to the high freight rates, as; a result of the' war, present prices are iully double-what they would have been. The' "London Grain, Seed, and Oil 1 Reporter" ..says _ that with freight rates already vciry high months ago, it was no'doubt -thought by British millers that .there was more probability of rates'/declining ;thah advancing further, ' and'.this; .tended';, to restrict buying of tffheat, whilst .the' fact; that freights continued'to rise ; more and more didnot v improve* matters as far as- encouraging buying, forward' was :i concorned. What also; helped; to raise "prices was, the uncertainty, not" only as to the quantity or wheat actually ; bought for Government acraunt',; but also as io the quantity that might be so bought in the future, tho result being that, ndtwith. standing the immense ' production of wheat m North America, millers and dealers were very'cautious buyers ; as a; result thereof, imports into the Unit- ■ .ed;,Kingdonr; were, below req' lirements up to); October* last-",'veari-i and stocks decreased - considerably, the result being seen in advancing prices.' During the pastffey. months, and -especially was this,-the case in Januaiy, imports were oh -'much more liberal lines,