Dairy Produce Export Trade.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 232, 3 April 1897, Page 2

Dairy Produce Export Trade.

NECESSITY FOR REGUIiAEITY IN SHIPMENTS. The following letter has been received by the Hon. the Premier from the AgentGeneral for New Zealand : — Sir,— l have the honour to suggest that you will briug before the notice of the Department of Agricultural, and those generally interested in the New Zealaud produce trade with London, the prime necessity of regularity in shipmeats. I have more than once referred to this subject in previous letters, and i have also forwarded observations from produce-dealers here on the same subject. I have no doubt that most of the business men and producers in New Zealand are quite awaro that regular shipments are desirable ; but I will Venture to say thai the vital importance of regularity is scarcely recognised as it should be. It is impossible to talk to any dealer in London of experience without his urging this npon you- Only thin week one of tho largest London dealers in New Zealand dairy produce came down from the city to see me on the subject, and spent half an hour in emphatically protesting against irregus larity. As he pointed ont, the very essence of success in London depends upon certainty and continuity. Buyers mutit not only be satisfied that New Zealand buttor and cheese are good but they must be able to count upon getting them every week. Our butter is, after all, only one amongst many butters competing for a share of the London market. If buyers cannot get ours when they want it, they simply take something else, and may possibly never again take ours. Then a week or a fortnight later in comes the New Zealand shipment behind its time. It has to be disposed of in a market which it helps t-3 glut, and the result is a fall of possibly from 2s to 4s per owt. The dealer "whom I have just referred to assured me that summer there had been an interval of 22 days between tho arrival of shipments, and he calculated the loss to shippers concerned at tho sum I have stated. I may add that Mr Tbouias Mackenzie entirely concurs with run in urging the entire necessity of regularity in the arrival of shipments, it' our trade in dairy produce is ever to be it, success. The shipments should arrive as nearly as possible once a. week. —I have, &c. W. P. Reeves. Tho letter has been sent to tho authorities of the Department of Agri culture, who have been enquiring into the subject.