PRICE OF BUTTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 1, 3 January 1939, Page 12

PRICE OF BUTTER

FURTHER WEAKENING

ECONOMIC COMMITTEE COMMENT

(By Air Mall, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, December 8.

Box bhtter prices weakened further during November and, as in October, were appreciably less than a year earlier. The market for Danish butter was for the most part firm but quotations remained below last year's corresponding figures, it is stated by "The Weekly Dairy Produce Notes" of the Imperial Economic Committee.

Whereas in October, 1937, the price for New Zealand butter was 137s per cwt, it was 114s 6d per cwt in October this year, a fall of 16 per cent. In November, 1937, the price was 131s 6d per cwt, and last month it was 108s 3d per cwt, a decline of 18 per cent. The price of Australian butter last month, at 103s 9d per cwt, was 20 per cent, below the price for November, 1937, and Danish butter, at 138s 9d per cwt, represented a fall of 7 per cent. Arrivals of butter from Australia and New Zealand during November totalled 828,400 boxes, as against 507,000 boxes in October and 561,600 boxes in November, 1937, it is stated. With delayed sailings from New Zealand, prospective arrivals for December are smaller than had been anticipated, the total of 809,200 boxes comparing with 1,163,400 boxes a year ago. Arrivals in January should be larger than a year earlier. Little change has been reported in production conditions in Australia, where the latest figures for gradings show production as only slightly greater than a year earlier; a rapfid decline in output is now expected in Victoria. Output in New Zealand is still appreciably below last year's corresponding figures. Some 27,100 boxes of South American butter were received during November as against 13,800 boxes in November last year; shipments are now on a smaller scale than a year ago. Arrivals from Canada during the month totalled only 4400 boxes as against 24,900 boxes in October and 34,400 boxes in November, 1937. From South Africa, where output and stocks have continued at a high level, only 1400 boxes were received.

European butter production appears to have shown an appreciable seasonal decline during November, and exports from several of the chief exporting countries of Northern Europe, including Denmark and the Netherlands, were on a smaller scale than a year earlier. The United Kingdom received from Denmark slightly larger quantities than a year earlier but less from most of the other chief sources of supPly.

Germany, which in October imported 10 per cent, less than a year earlier, has again been taking somewhat restricted quantities, exports to that country from Denmark in November being 15 per cent, below last year's corresponding figure; under the terms of the New Zealand-German Trade Agreement, sales of New Zealand butter have been made to Germany and 20,000 boxes will be shipped. Stocks in the United States on November 1 were almost twice as large as on that date last year, but more than half was held on Government account; prices in U.S.A. are tending upward.