(To the Editor.)

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 12

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I read with much interest in your columns of March 22 the letter signed "Another Englishman," and your comments thereon^, I have just received a letter from a well-known business' man in Birmingham, and the following is an extract of his letter:.— ,

"The higher price which Danish butter commands is due to several causes, the chief of which are that Danish butter was well established in the English, market before the New Zealand product was generally known, that it is suited to the English taste, maintains a fixed standard of quajity, and can always'be obtained, from any retailer at all times of the year. It has become a popular standard article. New Zealand butter on the/.other hand varies considerably in quality/ and is regarded as insipid in flavour as compared with Danish. Some well-known 'brands of New Zealand-butter maintain a regular standard o£ quality, but the product of other factories has often been of low grade, and has resulted in a poor opinion being formed of all New Zealand butter. One consignment of low quality is enough to queer the market for a long time. The general quality of New Zealand butter is now much more regular, and compares favourably with its Danish competitor. There are two distinct varieties of butter on the English; market—salted and fresh. The "salt"'butter is definitely salty \vhile ;the proportion of salt in "fresh" butter isvery small. The New Zealand brands are said to be neither "salt" nor "fresh" as the terms are understood in: ; Englandj but, something betwixt and between -that does not appeal to the English.taste. . ,; "There is general agreement between both importers and retailers .that the decisive factor in the low price of New Zealand butter is the flooding of the market, and the reduction in the retail selling price does not produce the increase in consumption that might be expected. Some shopkeepers go ?so^ far as to say that they could sell more, New Zealand butter if it were less cheap, the inference being that its very cheapness gives people the impression that it is a poor article."—l am, 6 "vL> v«« BUSDfESS MAij, JSdson,~3krcb-23.