N.Z. DAIRY PRODUCE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 55, 20 March 1937, Page 19

N.Z. DAIRY PRODUCE

Chiel Butter Supplier To United Kingdom 1936 SEASON REVIEWED Evidence of the growing importance of dairy -produce- to -New Zealand is given by the fact that imports of bnt- . ter. .into "the "Jnited Kingdom in 1936 tqtalli,ng 9,752,043 cwt., were a record, and the Dominion was the chief source ~of supply. The figures for 1935 and 1934 were exceeded by 1.5' per c6nt. and 0.6 per cent. Tespectively. Beexports Were. smaller. so that the increase in net imports last year was over 2 per cent. higher than in 1935. In considering the butter market last .year, a review by the Imperial Economie Committee comments upon a further increase in the general average of butter prices in the United Kingdom and a sli'ght deeline in the apparent consumption. Unfavourable weather conditions in Anstralia caused a reduetion in shipments, while there was a further marked inerease in supplies from the Netherlands. The upward trend of imports from Empire countries WaS checked in 1936, when Empire supplies in the aggregate were 5 per eent. smaller than in 1935 and comprised 53 per cent. of total imports, against 57 per cent. in that year. Supplies from foreign sources increased ' by 11 per nent. New Zealand consolidated her position as the United Kingdom 's ehief source of supply for butter, sending a record, quantity, which wAs 6 per cent. more than ih. 3935, .and accounting for 29 per cent. of gross imports, against 27 per cent, in 1935. Imports from Denmark, the seeon'd most important source, were again slightly reduced and comprised 22 per cent. of total imports, compared with 23 per cent. in 1935. Australia again oecupied third place, but, on account of unfavourable weather conditions, supplies from that country, declined by 20 per cent., and accounted for only 17 per cent. of the total, against 22 per cent. in the previous year. Imports from the -Netherlands, which had f allen to under 50,000 cwt. in 1932, have increased markedly since, and in 1936 amounted to practically 750,000 cwt., Or 61 per cent. more than in 1935.