‘Butter Must Drop’

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 3

‘Butter Must Drop’

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright)

LONDON, March 11.

The price of butter would have to come down by 15/- to 20/a hundredweight in view of the new British quotas announced yesterday afternoon, the chairman of the London Provision Exchange, Mr G. P. Gomersall, said last night.

Mr Gomersall, whose body incorporates all the local wholesale buyers and sellers, said that a decrease in the quotas would have been the only way to rally the market.

“But now we are faced with getting the housewife to buy more butter and the only way we can do this is to lower the price by 15s to 20s a hundredweight,” Mr Gomersall said.

“This, we hope, would increase the sales from 9000 tons a week to 9500 tons and quickly reduce the amount of butter in cold store.”

Another reason why the price would have to come down was the increase in home production, which added further worries in lightening the home market, he said. Eire will be the only country to benefit from the increase of 1230 tons in the basic quota announced by the President of the Board of Trade (Mr Douglas Jay). Her quota has been increas-

MR JAY

ed from 12,905 tons to 23,000 tons.

The quotas for Kenya and South Africa have been suspended because of the supply prospects in those countries and the allowance from Argentina was reduced from 10,220 tons to 6000 tons. Quotas from all other countries are unchanged. “The situation will be reviewed, in the summer, with the New Zealand and Australian Governments to enable the British Government to determine whether to provide for the import of up to 5000 tons more,” Mr Jay said. “New Zealand and Australia, whose heaviest shipments arrive between December and March, will be given the first opportunity to fill any allocations then issued in accordance with their entitlement to proportionate shares of total permitted imports.”