BUTTER OUTPUT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 49, 4 July 1947, Page 4

BUTTER OUTPUT

RANGITAIKI PLAINS DAIRY CO. TOTAL OF 4935 TONS With an output fox* the 194647 season ended on June 30 of 4935 tons, the R.P.D. Co. is able to show an increased output of 668 tons or 15.63 per cent, over the 1945-46 season when 4267 tons was made.

The season has been a very good one and had it not been for the dry spell in February-March a record output might easily have been experienced. Started in September, 1915, with 113 suppliers, the R.P.D.C. made only about 60 tons of cheese a year in its first few seasons. In the 1919-20 season it had 37 suppliers and made 60 tons of butter, but in the 1921-22 season it had 116 suppliers and what was thought to be a big output of 320 tons of butter.

The company’s first factory was at Awakeri, but after some years a new factory was built in the centre of the Rangitaiki Plains at Edgecumbe. Later on the small cheese factory that operated at Otakiri since 1914 was closed down and its supply incorporated with that of the factory at Edgecumbe. The Rangitaiki Plans company’s factory at Edgecumbe has the distinction of being one of the largest butter factories in New Zealand. This huge production of butter was shipped to Auckland grading stores from the port of Whakatane, and contributes in no small degree to the buoyant revenue of the Whakatane Harbour Board. The shipping of butter also gives Whakatane an excellent regular shipping service from Auckland which is to the advantage of Whakatane business people.