BUTTER & CHEESE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1601, 19 November 1912, Page 10

BUTTER & CHEESE.

PROSPECTS NOT VERY ENCOURAGING. "It does not look any too good anywhere," was the comment of a local butter merchant when discussing the outlook for'butter and cheese, and a review of the position as it stands at present would appear to confirm this seemingly pessimistic statement of the position. At this date last year salted butter was .worth 1305:,' and unsalted 1325.- to 131s. per cwt., and London advices reported that there was a good demand for all classes of colonial butter. Last Saturday's cables tell a very different story. They give the price of New Zealand butter as 116s. to 118s. per cwt., and add that arrivals are not clearing, as retailers are using stored butters, and Home and Continental makes, which are unusually plentiful. Tho imports of butter into Hie United Kingdom for the years ending September 28 last! for the past four years are interesting at, this stage, 'showing, as the figures do, a remarkable decrease this year,' after three years of .steady increase. The figures are:—• ■■ '■ , - Quantity. Year. ' Cwt. 1909 4,090,705. ■ 1910 : 4,104,062 < 1911 '. 4,418,476 '. 1912 :..:.,.......... 3,974,578 Commenting on the above position, a local merchant 6aid that it looked very much (judging from the supplies to the London market) as though the method of-doing business this year at G.AV.R., had been taken advantage of by agents, who had sold forward, and thus there was little chance^'of getting the price up. Another factor that may have had its influence'was that as a result of the high prices which ruled for butter last year, many people at Home were going in for margarine; and, again, the make of butter at "Home was probably heavy this season on account of last year's abnormal price. " ..-••' A private . cablegram received yester-j day stated that the butter shipped in September by.the Turakina sold at 121s. per: cwt." Against this, it may be recalled: that , the Ruapehu, which, was the corresponding butter steamer to the Turakina last year, sold her butter ,at 130s, -'.''■ ... The Cheese Market. ' _ The cheese market would appear to be in much the sake position as that for .butter. • The ■ first cheese ■ shipment last season was by (the Tainui, which sailed in October, and the price realised was GBs. The shipment by -the Turakina, which took the first main consignment this season, -has only brought G3s. ■Taking the imports of cheese into the United Kingdom for the twelve months ended'September-28, 1912, and tho three.previous years, as in butter, the figures again show a falling off. They are-.— Quantitv. Year. .... . Cwt. • 1909 .........;..... ; ;.,.. 2,312,907 ■:■ 1910 •. 2,435,224 1911 .........;:. 2,425,534 1912 ).....:.... 2,294,839 A Correspondent's Views. ; A correspondent, "Anglo-Colonial," writes as under:—"The present depression, in the prices of butter and cheese in England, will, .1. believe, lost right .through the season, and will only be relieved .when over production reduces prices to such a position. • that supply will, be checked; The cable messages which -we see in the papers here do not give a strictly accurate account of.tjhe market position in England. After the unprecedented .drought in the dairying. districts of the western world, last' season, "it was thought .by many ; enthusiasts..:here-that high prices might' continue for'another year. This delusion has been-ex-ploded.; A.large quantity 'of the'' high-class' cheese made in Cheshire and in the Hylde districts of Lancashire realised last season 90s. per 1201b. This naturally would bo an incentive to .further efforts for larger production this, season.. The annual output of cheese in Cheshire is 40,000 tons, and in. Lancashire 20,000 tons, leaving out of the reckoning the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, Leicester, and other cheeseproducing counties. ■ "In 'an. article under my pen-name, which The Dominion published last June, dealing iyith. the probable future prices of butter and 'cheese, I pointed out some features of the unreliability of the trade,and said that my estimate of the average price of New Zealand- butter during the present season in London would be 100s. to 1125., and of cheese 50s. to 555., I think I am right still."