FLAX GROWING

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1930, Page 2

FLAX GROWING

future prospects. A circular letter recently sent out by * the Department of Agriculture gives a resume of information disclosed to a recent conference of the East African Producers and Importer’s sub-section ot the London Chamber of Commerce and the East African Steam Ship Companies, called for the purpose of obtaining J lower freight rates for sisal. Commenting upon the matters dealt with in this circular, Mr Milburn, Director of FlaxLands Department, Ltd., writes as fol- ( lows:— 1

“Tbe statistical position of the sisal industry as now disclosed at this conference, combined with a decreased output of over 200,600 bales in Manila production during the past twelve months, is of the greatest significance to the future' of our New Zealand industry. Sisal, up to within the past few months, has commanded a price some pounds per ton above our New Zealand hemp. It has now fallen to a figure below the value of the New Zealand product and to a figure 30 per cent below actual cost o'*' production. Notwithstanding the fall in the price of our New Zealand product, well-situated mills operating even wild flax areas, where they bivii the leaf-hearing areas and have ho royalties to pay, can still produce at a small profit even at present prices. With present sisal prices, the production a;id output of sisal cannot continue, and ' replanting of their areas which,

owing to the temporary nature of tho yield from the plant, is absolutely essential to keep uji a continuity of supplies, is at a standstill. ‘‘On absorption of existing supplies and with the impossibility of even harvesting without heavy financial loss, the •emaining annual crops from existing plantations which are decreasing all the time as the fourth-year - production is reached, after which no further yields are obtainable, the inevitable result must be a return to payable price levels for the sisal product in order to meet the shortage which must then ex-ist. “The restoration of sisal prices to a point that will leave them only the smallest profit on production must mean a sympathetic advance in the price of our competitive fibre to- a figure which will at once restore a. handsome margin of profit to our millers. The enormous advantage we possess over our sisal competitors in cost of production is, of course, largely accounted for owing* to tlie economic supremacy of our fibre plant compared with sisal, its permanent annual yields against only four annual yields in sisal, and its wonderful fibre content, 15 rer cent to 20 per cent, ' as a era i list only 2\ per cent in sisal.

i “When very much larger supplies of our hemp are available*, permitting regular shipments on a large scale thus j warranting European spinners utilising ' our fibre for many purposes for wbicll hitherto, owing to irregular and spasmodic supplies of our product, they have been uhabte to do, it is COtlM* entl.v anticipated by many of those in* timatolv connected with the trade that onr fibre will establish itself perm an- ' entl.v n-t a higher level of prices than the sisal product.”