RUSSIAN RYE

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1931, Page 6

RUSSIAN RYE

G ERA lAN Y\S A OTTO N

TORRENT OF GRAIN AVERTED

BERLIN, March 7

An attempt to inundate Germany with a torrent of dumped Russian grain has been thwarted at the last moment by the hasty erection of a Customs barrier. That is the real meaning of yesterday’s order of the Federal Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, raising the import duty on rye, the staple food grain in this country, by 50s per ton, viz., from 150 s to 200 s, from to-day. The plan which has thus been frustrated is said to involve the biggest transaction in bread corn of which there is any record. The Bolshevik Government had accumulated at Rotterdam. 120,000 tons of rye, and at Amsterdam 44,000 tons, without being able, to find a purchaser for any considerable portion of these huge stores.

G ERM AN-DUTCH SV X DICA TE. Eventually, however, a syndicate headed by a Berlin and a Rotterdam firm, both of which are. understood to be in German hands, took over for delivery from the end of last month 135,000 tons of this rye. Dutch authorities declare that the world’s grain markets have never known so 'gigantic a deal. The price to he paid to the Bolsheviks is understood to be 57s a ton. After paying the old duty of 150 s a ton, the syndicate hoped to sell to the German millers on the Lower Rhine at from 21.0 s to 220 s a. ton. True, the mills can now buy Renish rye for about 1775. the North German for from 190 s to 1955, hut. thanks to its superior quality, the Russian grain would have been preferred, even at the higher rates mentioned. GRAVE EFFECT ON GERMANY. Consequently, this prodigious bit of Bolshevik dumping would have been a serious blow to the German grain market, which is already glutted with home-grown, rye. The raising of the

duty from 150 s to 200 s a ton will, however, act as an effective dam to the Russian grain. There is much speculation a s to what will be done with the dumped rye by its present holders, whose position, as one paper remarked, “has naturally become less comfortable.” Belgium is bound by her convention with France to close her doors to it, and the possibilities of the Dutch market are said to be very restricted. There remain, therefore, only the Scandinavian countries, and considerable time is likely to elapse before they can absorb' so vast a quantity. The raising of the duty slightly stiffened rates on the corn markets here, but the Ministry of Agriculture is confident that, in consequence of Germany’s own surplus, the appreciation is not- likely to last.