Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-19

l.
past year hardly a single period has
been known when the Hongkong mar
ket has been on an even basis. Be
fore the American harvest of this year
dealers had contracted with the mills
for six months forward supply, and
even now June, 1910 there is a differ
ence of 20 cents Mexican per bag be-
tween the Hongkong price, in its favor,
and the cost of importing the flour,
assuming that it had to be purchased
at the prevailing rate in the existing
market on the Pacific coast
The average price of flour in Hong
kong for 1909 was $3.50 Mexican, ($1
of which averaged 40 3-S cents Ameri-
can currency in value in China during
1909 per bag; the highest point
was reached in August when the quo
tation was S2.72 per bag Hongkong cur
rency, Isl of which equaled AZ to A
cents American during 1909 having,
risen from the minimum quotation of
$210 per bag early in the year. Fig
uring the years importations of g.
170, 900 bags at the average price OF
81. so per bag, the gross value of Hong
kongs flour trade in 1909 was SS,242,OOO
Hongkong currency.
IMPORTS DECREASE
Vice Consul General w. Roderick
Dorsey of Shanghai, writes that the
China is that which meets with the APP
prevail of the Chinese consumer in both
grade and price.
The highly processed variety is too
| expensive for the native market ana
is used by only the small number or
| foreigners resident in the Empire. Inc
native demands a flour at minimum
cost with maximum bread giving quail
| tiles. Canadian and other hard wheat
! lack an abundance of these qualities.
and so find only a very limited sale.
The Chinese market at present is I'M
| favorable to flour imports, which nave
declined during the past two years
Several causes have contributed TO
this. Heavy overstocking in 1907 I'M
posed upon 1908 and 1909 the neces-
sitv of absorbing a surplus Of about
3. OO0. 900 sacks before the market could
even reach a normal basis. In addi-
ton, the high price of wheat in Amer
lea and the low price of silver IN
China were so unfavorable to importa-
ton as to have affected the market
even though the glut had not existed.
Another reason, which is contlnu-
! ing one, is the part that China IS be-
| ginning to play in the productioh Oh
! flour. The foreign equipped mills IN
| Shanghai alone sold flour to other
narts of the empire in 1908 to the
value of $1,766,00O, or 50 per cent more
| than 1907 The approximate daily out
put of the foreign equipped mills at
! Shanghai is 1900 bags of fifty pounds
each, or 805,000 pounds. In the near
! by outports are mills with outputs as
| follows: Wusich, 1900 bags; HaichoW,
| 2O0O: Su Chen, 1000; Chinkiang, 1000;
| Kai Chou, 1000, and Chinkiangapu,
| 1900. making a daily output of S4OO
| bags of fifty pounds each, or 42O,O
pounds. Another mill, of 1900 bags ca
nacity. is in course of erection at WI
| SIGH, and another is projected at
! Wuhu to replace one destroyed by tlre'
which, when completed, will give q
total daily output of $4,000 pounds in
the provinces adjacent to Shanghai.
This, added to the product of the
| Shanghai mills, amounts to 2I,6OO
sacks, or 100000 pounds per day.
In the printed market list native
flour is quoted at retail SO 1-3 per cent
cheaper than American. The native
consumer therefore purchases and will
| continue to purchase the native pro-
duct as long as it is offered at such
favorable figures, and the readiness
with which it is bought will encourage
| the farmers to increase their acreage
and the millers to enlarge their plants
in order to supply an ever-increaslng
demand. Unless price and other con
ditions change for the better the
| States
great bulk of q trade it has enjoyed
for many years almost without serious
| connection. Gist of flour importers
at Shanghai is on file in the bureau
of manufacturers
TRADE CHANGES
Writing of the flour trade of An
| tung in his annual review of the trade
| Of that port, Consul e. Carleton Baker
saws that the extent to which native
flour displaced the American product
in 1909 is deserving of special notice;
The value of the imports of foreign
| flour, which in 1908 amounted to $780,
| 1877 dropped to $4,000 in 1903, while the
| imnorts of native flour, which amount
ed to only $45,SO in 1908, rose to $780,
! 956 in 1909. AS the foreign flour was
almost entirely of American manufac-
! t1Ire, the loss to American trade was
| considerable. This was caused chiefly
nv the rise in price of the American
nroduct, due to the higher price of
| wheat at home, caused partly by the
| "corner" in wheat. UnfavOrable eX-
| change was another cause for the de-
! creased consumption of American
| flour. AS the Chinese are now ac-
| customed to using native flour and it's
| low price appeals to them, the place
| once held in this market by Ameri-
can flour will be most difficult to re-
gain. With the decline in the importa-
| ton Of American flour at Antung has
! come an increase in the consumption
! Of Russian flour.
There was a striking increase in the
! irnports of rice, from 25S5 to 42,26l
! hundredweight, due partly to the short
| age in the local corn crop and partly
- +l,a Iiob pTice of American flour