MARGARINE GROWS IN FAVOUR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 7

MARGARINE GROWS IN FAVOUR

Position On British Market INROADS INTO SALES OF BUTTER Dominion Special Service. CHRISTCHURCH, May 3. Further evidence of the rapidlygrowing danger of margarine competition with New Zealand butter on the Home market was given by Mr. \V. E. Hale, chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Board, in an address to the Christchurch ward conference of representatives of the industry. He emphasized the urgent need of maintaining advertising —‘’prestige” advertising—in Britain during the war, while New Zealand butter is not being sold by brand. “I can tell you that Hie production of margarine in Britain has practically doubled since the war began,” said Mr. Hale. “The position is so serious that this extra production can take up the leeway caused by the cutting off of Danish supplies. This huge increase is a very serious matter for the dairy industry. “You have to remember that, you cannot go into a shop in England now and ask for a pound of New Zealand butter. AH you can get is a pound of Government butter, which may be New Zealand today and Latvian tomorrow. You are not told,' and you cannot know, what you a're buying. Is it any wonder that margarine is making inroads into butter sales?” . . The board had written to the Minister of Marketing, Mr. Nash, urging careful consideration of-the institution of a vigorous campaign of publicity in England, “featuring the part the New Zealand dairy industry _ is playing in providing butter, showing 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.” The board exjrressed to Mr. Nash its grave concern at the growing popularity .of “vitaminized” margarine, emphasizing that the longer ’the war lasted the more serious this competition would become, and the greater difficulty New Zealand would have in regaining her lost markets. A Letter from London. Mr. Hale quoted from a letter received from “a young New Zealander in a good position in London.” This letter stated : “Margarine with vitamin content equal to butter is all the rage here at the moment, at Bd. a lb. Retailers with butter stocks against ration coupons find each week the butter they ordered only partly sold, and margar : ine taken instead. I know any number of homes, well to do, which never take their butter ration; it is all Stork margarine. And, I tell you New Zealand will have a- heli of a job getting back her butter business. It shows how crazy your Dairy Board is in dropping advertising altogether. You should do what Rolls Royce are doing —‘prestige’ advertising. ... “Butter here is 1/7 a lb., and if your board doesn’t wake up it will lose most of the market to margarine,” the writer ‘continues. Commenting on the personnel of the Empire dairy produce control, he says they are, “mostly British civil servants of various hues. Some come from > the Import Advisory Control, some from Wheat Control — in fact, I should say that not one of them'knows the difference between New Zealand butter and Latvian. God help the New Zealand'farmer in the not too distant future!”

Commenting on the letter, Mr. Hale pointed out that it was not the board that -had ceased advertising, because this was the work of the Marketing Department. The board agreed that it was unwise to drop advertising. Replying to Mt. W. G. Macartney, Mr. Hale said hq hoped New Zealand never reached a standard of living at which margarine would be preferred to butter for table purposes.