Exporters want currency clamp

01-11-2009 | Not Specified

Punters are speculating on the New Zealand dollar at the expense of meat, wool and dairy producers, exporters say. They want the government to find ways to stop them.

Wool exporter Peter Christensen, of Fuhrman and Co, said 80% of NZ dollar buyers were punters. The government should be intervening and putting a cap on the amount of NZ currency speculators could hold.

"We need to clearly differentiate between productive investment in New Zealand and international speculation."

He said that since mid-March the Kiwi dollar had gone up 46% and seriously undermined gains that should have ended up in farmers' pockets.

Peter Crone, of John Marshall & Co, predicted the dollar would go to 80 cents against the US currency and said something was going to break.

"It will reach the point where international mills will stop buying New Zealand wool and turn to other wool-growing countries or move out of wool and into synthetics," he said.

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