International Wheat Council

The International Wheat Council held its 31st session in London from November 7 to 19, 1960, for the purpose of reviewing the world wheat situation in accordance with article 21 of the 1959 International Wheat Agreement. The meeting was attended by representatives of 29 member countries and by observers from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Economic Community. According to the press, the results of the second annual review, published on December 12, 1960, revealed that although climatic conditions had created unusually favorable preconditions for an expansion of the world wheat trade during 1960–61, the world surplus at the end of the season was expected to be larger than ever. The press reported that the cause of the wheat surplus problem was government intervention in production, pricing, and trading. Government measures introduced during and shortly after World War II to meet supply deficiencies in a war-disrupted world had been allowed to continue in effect, although the years since the war had seen growing surpluses. According to reports, there had been few changes in national policies affecting producer price supports in 1960; among 25 cases classified by the Council, supports had been reduced in only two instances, while in six instances they had been raised and in seventeen they had remained unchanged. In the four main wheat exporting countries—the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia—the end-of-season carry-overs as of July 31 were expected to reach an unprecedented total of 60.4 million metric tons, 37.3 million metric tons over the normal stock surplus. The ultimate solution of wheat surplus problems, concluded the press, depended on a growing adjustment of national wheat policies to international realities.