TRADE IN KAURI GUM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 389, 25 June 1928, Page 12

TRADE IN KAURI GUM

Trade in kauri gum continues quiet, with little movement in the market. Steady orders are coming forward for srm&l parcels, but there is no life in the market. Commenting on conditions generally a New York firm of importers closely in touch with the trade, in a recent letter to a leading Auckland exporter, put the state of the market down to over-pro-duction. The writers argued that conditions to-day were different from those of a few years ago. To-day, kauri gum was not indispensable in any varnish formula, and thus any attempt to raise prices sent buyers looking in other directions. In any case, it was contended, the market at the moment could not absorb the quantities offering with any show of life, and no change in the situation could be expected until production and consumption were brought more into something which might be termed 'closer adjustment.” The lifeless condition of the market generally seems to bear up the assertion that production tends to exceed the demand. It is certainly true that kauri gum is not now indispensable to varnish formulas.