BUTTER MARKET RISING

Evening Post, Issue 126, 29 May 1936, Page 8

BUTTER MARKET RISING

New Zealand butter is now selling in London at 103s per cwt; a month ago the price was 88s, and a year ago it was 80s. The causes of this sharp advance may be many, and a shortage of supplies (not from New Zealand) may be one of them. This rapid appreciation in the value of one of the key-expojt products of the Dominion is gratifying, especially to those producers who have consigned their goods to the British market and taken what it had to offer. However, even politicians are prone to forget that every market has its brake, and that ultimately the consumer puts his foot on it. Consumption of New Zealand and Australian butter in the United Kingdom during the past two years has been greatly increased because of its attractive price and its generally unexceptionable quality; but this greater consumption has been at the expense of margarine, [This substitute for bnt-

ter has been brought to a high stale of perfection—as a substitute; cvcji so, Lho great majorily of British consumers have shown llieir preference for tlic genuine article because its price was within their means. It is hoped, then, that the price of New Zealand butter as such will not be forced to such a point as to divert altention from the real article to its imitation. If it docs, then the advantage to the New Zealand butler producer of die present high market may have to be discounted perhaps before the current export season ends.