GRAIN AND PRODUCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1941, Page 3

GRAIN AND PRODUCE

CANTERBURY MARKETS. LITTLE ACTIVITY IN ANY SECTION (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, May IG. Grain and produce markets continue quiet, with little activity in any section. Apart from a reasonably healthy export inquiry, the small seeds trade is almost at a standstill as local trade has finished for the season. Export trade is conditioned entirely by the amount of shipping available. Potato digging is now in full swing but, apart from a small increase in the price of Suttons, there has been no change in the market. Deliveries are being made to the North Island but orders are small compared with what they have been in the past. The crop is very patchy. Some districts report exceptionally good yields and quality but in others the crop has been only mediocre. Suttons have not turned out as well as was hoped and the disappointing return has caused an improvement in the price to £8 on trucks. Whites are still at £7. More lucerne than usual has been offered this season and is still coming in. The quality of the seed has been even more patchy than usual, the bulk of the crop in some cases having made only second grade. The crop, from a seed point of view, met bad weather this year. Much of the crop, which was maturing well, was given new stimulus by wet weather earlier in the year and had to be harvested with mature pods, immature pods and flowers on the same stalk. The value is from Is to Is 6d per lb.