THE ENEMY OF BUTTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 154, 1 May 1940, Page 3

THE ENEMY OF BUTTER

MARGARINE ON THE HOME MARKET DAIRY BOARD CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT ! The following is an extract from the report presented by ' Mr W. E. Hale, Chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, at ' the ward conference held in c Whakatane recently. In this * statement Mr Hale deals fully A with the question of margarine ( versus butter on the Home market: — T suppose you have all seen the tremendous inroads which margarine has been making in England, ] since the outbreak of the war, and, i have all felt some apprehension as c to the possible competition in future \ I can tell you that the Board., i which has been receiving regular 1 information as to the position in i England, is very apprehensive as to I the I'll lure. To-day in England., the best margarine is selling at 9d per ] pound as against national butter at .< Is 7d per pound. That !)d margarine ; lias been vitaminised and is sold as < containing the same vitamins as < butter.. It is available in unlimited quan- < titles whereas butter is rationed, ' originally at the rate of 4 ounces a 1 week and now at the rate of eight 1 ounces per person a week. .What, happened soon after the outbreak? The grocers found that they were ! being left Avith butter on their hands because people who had never previously used margarine were satisfied with it. Moreover, - with the very great disparity in the price—< and much cheaper margarine than the i)u a pound article is available there too —people have given thought to whether butter was worth the difference, and some unfortunately for us have decided that in their case it isn't. National Butter. You have to remember too that it is not now possible to buy butter by brand in England. You can't go into a shop and ask for a pound of New Zeaalnd butter. AH you can get is a pound of Government but j ter; that butter may be New Zealand to-day and Latvian to-morrow. You arc not told, and you cannot know what you are buying. Ts it any wonder that, under these conditions, margarine is making inroads into butter sales? The Board has given, a lot of thought to this question and has urged the Minister of Marketing to advertise in England and let the British consumers know the part the dairy industry is playing in New Zealand in helping to win the Avar, and let them know too that once hostilities are over, the highest quality Ncav Zealand butter Avill again be available under its OAA r n name. Just in case you think I am over a emphasising the dangers Ave have to face through margarine competition, I would like to quote briefly from two letters received recently from New Zealanders living in London. First let me say that Ave knoAV these tAvo people Avho live in different parts of London, and aa'lio are quite unknown to each other. We know that both of them have consistent eaters of butter and that up till the start of the Avar both actually purchased NeAV Zealand butter in pats, so that they were always sure they Avere getting what they Avanted. Neither of them were margarine buyers then lip till the start of the Avar. Letter from London. Here is the first quotation from the letter of a New Zealander in a. f good position in London: —• "Margarine Avith vitamin content equal to butter is all the rage here at the moment, <Sd a lb. Retailers Avith butter stocks against ration coupoils find each Aveek the buttc-v they ordered only partly sold, an'.: margarine taken instead. I any number of homes, Avell to do, who never take their butter ration: its all Stork margarine. 'and I 'HI you, after iho AA'ar New Zea'and will have a hell of a job getting back lier butter business: and it shows lioav crazy your Dairy Board is dropping advertising altogether. You should do what Rols Royce are doing—"prestige" adA'ertising. Say thai ■ New Zealand butter and cheese are 1 being made in greater quantities ! for e.vport to the Old Country at 1 per cwt (state the price you r;re ' getting) f.ob. New Zealand, and ■ tin!. New Zra'and hopes the British public avill remember that the high nrir-i" asVcl I*:? it i-> not going into 1 ' • - ' id fa nvr's pc-ckots.

Butter here is Is 7tl a 11), and if your Board doesn't wake up it will lose most of the market to margarine-. Its a wonder that Davis doesn't wake your Board up to this,, but he's Joo busy with Butter Control I suppose he hasn't had the time bo. He lias a big staff, mostly British civil servants of various hues. Some come from tlie Import Advisory Council, some from Wheat Control —in fact I should say that', not a damn one of them knows the dflerencj be-> tween New Zealand butler and Latvian. God help the New Zealand dairy farmer in the not too distant future."

Responsibility of Marketing Department. Well, as you know, it isn't the Dairy Board that has stopped advertising in London, because this'is carried out by the Marketing De> partment. The Board agrees that it is unwise to drop advertising and has written Mr Nasi; on the point urging that advertising be undertaken. V The second letter comes from a New Zealand woman who is at present secretary of a London hospital, and who too has always been a user of New Zealand butter. Here is what she says:—■ "In any case, as far as the meat goes, when the rationirg starts we are onlj T to get Is fid worth per head, so there will be no opportunity of being extravagant in that direction. Eggs are always fairly plentiful, and Dutch ones arc always very good and never seem to he mucli more than 2s a dozen, and we plenty of milk; anyway we are all keeping prettj r fit on our diet, despite the *4lb ration of butt'er and 12ozs of sugar. As a matter of the butter ration worries us very little: the best margarine is only 3d a lb and is really very good, better in fact than some of the "Government butter" we are getting.

Difficulties When War is Over, It would be possible to say a great deal more on this question which we believe is likely to be the most serious one faced by the industry after the war. You cannot alter the eating habits of a nation as is now being done in the case of butter, without leaving behind repercussions that will affect those who market that butter in the future. A great new field of buyers has been opened up for the margarine interests without cost to them, and it will require a tremendous sales effort on our part to once again popularise our butter when the wai is over. That is another reason why we in the industry would like sec costs lowered rather than the price raised too high, for the greater the disparity between the price of margarine and the price of butter the greater will be our difficulty in the future. We believe that the first step should be taken at once and should consist of judicious publicity at the : London end, and we have written to Mr Nash to this effect. In a letter written 011 the 4th Apiil said: — Board Concerned With Position.

"The Board is very much concerned with the position which has arisen in England in connection with butter. On several occasions recently information has come to hand indicating that the high quality vitaminised margarine now available in unlimited quantities in England :s supplanting and that giocers there have that, though butter was rationed, the full quantities they ordered lor their customers were not being purchased. "The longer the war lasts the more serious this position will become, and the greater the difficulty New Zealand will have in regaining for herself lost butter popularity . We realise that under to-day's conditions it is not possible to carry on with the excellent publicity formerly given to New Zealand butter as such, but do urge that yon give very careful consideration to the institution of a vigorous campaign of publicity in England, featuring the part the New Zealand dairy industry js playing in providing butter, that the high quality is being maintained, and that when the war is over New Zealand butter will be available as before, under its own brand. Such a campaign is admittedly more difficult, to carry into effect than our previous publicity, but under expert supervision of advertising agents who fully understand such work* it could avc believe be most effective. Butter Needed for Cooking. "A somewhat analagous cas© on a smaller scale is that of a famouScottish si'or' brt. a 1 ay rich requires Gutter in the bu.kv *

not available for manufacturing uses at present, the firm is advertising extensively in England to the effect that "to make good shortbread butter is ne.eded. To-day butter is not available for manufacturing so I we cannot supply our famous shortbread. When the "war is over it will once again be available to you in } lb packets, 51b tins, etc." The firm apparently realised that to maintain the goodwill which has been built up for its shortbread through the years,, it must -continue to advertise and keep the name before the public. Similarly, we believe that through press advertising, news paper articles, etc., the goodwill which has steadily been built up for New Zeaalnd butter can be maintained to some extent throughout the war, thus making less difficult the change over when war ceases.. "JWe would be greatly obliged if you could give attention to this question which we believe is the most serious one likely to face the country in connection with its dairy output."

Definite Duty as Farmers. That, Gentlemen, really completes my revieAV of the present, situation of the industry. I wish it could be a more optimistic one, but we have to face the position as Ave find and to-day we are all facing a host of problems which make the increased production we all so much desire difficult indeed. As dairy farmers we have a very definite duty to-day to do everything we possibly can to win the war. There is little need for me to urge you to increase your prdouction if you possibly can.