DENMARK WANTS HIGH PRICES

Chronicle (Levin), 8 October 1947, Page 2

DENMARK WANTS HIGH PRICES

MR. A. LINTON RETURNS FROM TRIP ABROAD AUCKLAND, Oet. 7. Dcmuark's fight for exceptionali.v higli prices i'or her produce 011 the British market, is due to the dire econoinio plight of her dairy industry. This impression has been brought baelt b\ Mr. A. Linton, of Wairarapa, deputy chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, wlio returned from Sydney b\ flying boat today after an absenci abToad of two inonths, during which lie visited Britain, Denmark and Sweden. Mr. Linton left the Dominion or> August 12 to take part, with the chair man of the Dairy Board, Mr. h . L. Hale, in negotiations with the British Ministrv of Food for the sale of New Zealand 's produce for the new season, As chairman of the Dairy Research Institute and of New Zealand Y eterinar.v Services Council lie later visited veterinary colleges and research centres in Fngland, Scotland, Denmark and Sweden. The liigh prices Denmark was forced to pay for tlie winter stock food sha imported -from North and South America, the severe summer drought and shortage of labour and coal, had conibiued to bring about an economie erisis in her dairy industry from which it would take ycars to recover, said Mr. Linton, lle was in Copenhagen during the negotiations between the British Ministry of Food and Danish Dairy Fedoration and fully appreciated thf. reasons why the Danes were asking 040s Od per cwt. f.o.b. Demuark fo> their produce. ' ' I do uot want to give the impression that 1 am supporting the price they are seeking," lie said. "lt is too higli but 1 have scen tha-t farming eonditions in Denmark are much more dilikult thaii in New - Zealand. For i ua tane e, it is neeessary for Ihem ti import substantial quantities of stock food for nse in Ihe winter months from North and South America. At the moment the Denish farmer is payiug £,'10 a ton for food imported from the Argent ine. ' ' Because of the acute shortage of coal1 at least .S(t,0()0 fanu workers had left Ihe in'dustrv to dig pcat needed to provide pouer for dairy factories and otlier manufacturing induatries. These nien were earning much more moncy oa Ihe peat lields than the fanaers were prepaied to pay thein'and this had brought about a great shortage of fann labour. The dairy factories he liad inspected were using 80 per cent. of peat and 20 per cent. of Polish and German coal. Further difficulties were confrontinr Ihe Danish farmer as Ihe result of the tremendous drought whieli had alflicted Nortiiern Europe and England during the summer. Tliere was so little feed left that Ihe Danes \vere hilling be tween 20 and 30 per cent. of their dairy cows because they could not alford to keep them during the approaeluir-j winter. .Meat rationing liad been lifted compieteiy. Dairy research facilities in Den niurk, England and Scotland were par ticularly good, addcjd -Mr. Linton Denmark was specialising in Ihe production of differont types of cheese and expected to export about 7000 tons to the British market this year. This was a remarkable achievement in view oi' the i'act that she had not exported

cheese bofore. "To tlie farming industry in New Zealand 1 would iike to say tlmt the Britisli people are not getting enougli to eat," he added. "They are short of clotlies and there is tlie possibilily tlrit they may be short of firing during the winter months. From the economie point of view, Britain is facing oue of tlie worst winters in her history. 1 intend to try to inipress on the dairy industry the absolute necessity of increasing our exports of foodstuffs dur-' ing the uext year or two. There will be an •exeellent market for New Zealand dairy produce for some years to come. ' '