GRAIN & PRODUCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 June 1940, Page 7

GRAIN & PRODUCE

CANTERBURY MARKETS. POTATO PRICES EASIER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 28. A fortnight of fine weather has enabled farmers to make good progress with their wheat sowings, and reports from observers throughout the country indicate that the area planted will be considerably larger than last year’s. The sowing in Mid-Canterbury and particularly in North Otago, where the crop was largely planted in May, is reported to be exceptionally good. The potato market is again easier, the latest quotations, to farmers being £2 to £2 ss. Unless Australia admits more than the 5000 tons which are to be sent away from New Zealand in the next few months the prospects of finding an export market for the remainder of the Dominion's surplus—about another 15,000 tons—appear to be negligible. It has been suggested, however, that the surplus would be absorbed in New Zealand without much difficulty. Experienced bakers say that before they used compressed yeast in making bread they used large quantities of potatoes, and there appears to be no reason why they should not do so again. It is understood that about 6001 b. of potatoes could be used to a ton of flour and if all bakers began using potatoes again they would absorb more than 10,000 tons of the surplus. A further quantity could perhaps be absorbed by adjusting the riddles on the sorters. If riddles with a mesh a quarter of an inch larger were used to take out seed the quantity of table potatoes would be reduced and the quantity and quality of seed would be increased. The quantity of stock feed potatoes would also be increased. The finer weather of the past two weeks has brought an easing in chaff, which is now quoted at £5 15s to £6. More has been offering lately, and there has been less inquiry. Other markets are quiet and unchanged.