FLOUR SUPPLIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1920, Page 5

FLOUR SUPPLIES.

MERCHANT iPREDICTS SHORTAGE. "In six months' time there will be one of the sharpest pinches in the flour business that New Zealand has ever seen," is the opinion of Mr. A. Baldwin, the well-known flour and gra.n merchant, who has just returned from a tour of investigation among tht. millers in the_ South Island. At tin present time the ordinary trade tf.rm? for flour in Wellington are £1!) per ton ex store, or £l6 10s per ton f.o.b. in the south. Mr. Baldwin says that there is no miller in the Dominion with more than a six months' supply of wheat for gristing, and that a proportion of the wheat in hand is stuff that in ordinary years would he looked at a second time if offered as fowl wheat. The shortage of wheat is so acute that the farmer can include such stuff in what ho is offering as "firsts" (milling wheat), and «iy to the miller: "Well, take it or leave it!" In order to get the milling wheat, the "seconds" included have to be taken and paid for as milling wheat. On gristing such wheat the blower carries a lot of the whole wheat away, accounting for a loss of at least 25 |jer cent. With the shortage in Australia, and the embargo placed upon export, it is clear, in Mr. Baldwin's opinion, that there is not much hope from that quarter. The continuation of the drought in New South Wales is also a factor working against normal crops this year. Quotations frpm San Francisco have already been received, viz., £25 per ton c.i.f., but as the new season's crop is due in another four months that price may be modified. With the exchange at the present rate, American flour would co.=t £3O per ton, vet it would not surprise Mr. Baldwin if we had to bring flour across the Pacific before the I end of the year.