THE WHEAT INDUSTRY

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 22

THE WHEAT INDUSTRY

CANADIAN SPRING CROP OTTAWA, June 9. The condition of the spring wheat in Canada on May 31 was the lowest in the records of the Bureau of Statistics, dating back to 1909. AMERICAN WINTER PRODUCTION. WASHINGTON, June 9. The winter wheat production this year is announced by the Department of Agriculture at 649,000,000 bushels, as indicated on June L INCREASE IN TOTAL SURPLUS. WASHINGTON, June 9. The new winter wheat crop is expected to exceed last year’s by 45,000,000 bushels, and combined with the Farm Board’s present holdings will increase the total surplus to 400,000,000 bushels. The Farm Board is expected to find that the size of the new crop will make it still more difficult to drop the 200,000,000 bushels it is now storing at a cost of some 3,000,000 dollars per month. The principal ray of light in the wheat situation is the announcement by the Department of Agriculture that the condition of spring wheat on June 1 was 67.9 per cent, of normal, the lowest recorded at that date, with an expected production around 200,000,000 bushels. CUT IN FREIGHT RATES. WASHINGTON, June 12. The belief that farmers may ask Congress for an export debenture or some other weapon in foreign markets, should the proposed Canadian cut in freight rates on wheat be reflected in the export quotations, has arisen in political and agricultural circles. Senator Borah (Idaho) looks upon the Bennett Government’s plan to absorb the 5 cents per bushel transportation charges to the seaboard as an export subsidy as comparable in some respects to debenture stock. A 'debenture certificate on wheat would be worth 21 cents per bushel, or one-half the amount of the tariff. A co-operative association or grain dealer desiring to ship wheat abroad would receive world price plus 21 cents for each bushel exported. Opponents say that the plan would lead to dumping of United States surpluses and invoke serious foreign retaliation. Some visualise in the export debenture an incentive for world-wide price slashing, and a subsequent situation worse, or at least no better, than the one for which a remedy is sought. That view it taken notably by the Farm Board, which also opposes further emergency stabilisation, which already has burdened it with almost the entire 1 United States carry-over.