N.Z. DAIRYING

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 178, 14 August 1937, Page 19

N.Z. DAIRYING

Our Own Coriespondent.)

Still the Leading Supplier To Britain NEW BUTTER REC0RDS

(From

• ' - LON'DON, July t New Zealand was- the IJnited Kingdom's 'ehief supplier- of butter, cheese, .pork and milk powfier durin'g 1936. *She exported more butter to- Britain ^ thanin any previous -year, accounting for 29 per cent. of all impoxts. She supplied 63 per cent. of Great Britain 's cheese, a drop of 5 per. cent, on 1935;. 56 per cent. of the pork, a rise of 18. per cent. on 1935; and 61 per cent. of unsweet- ' ened milk "powder. New Zealand also. was the main souree of sweetehed cnilk powder. These figures are given in. the ; review by the Imperial Economic Committee entitled Dairy Produce SuppHes in 1936. • ' ; ' Imports of butter into the United Kingdonr in -1936 reached a record ^figure of 9,750,000cwt., valued at £44,400,900. Supplies from EmpiTe sources comprised 5 per cent.. of thp total, . compared with 57 per cenf. iii 1935, the decline being due to smaller shipments from Australia. Imports from New Zealand, the chief source, were greater than in any previous year. New Zealand butter average 10 per cent. higher in price than in 1935 and ' DanisK 5 per cent. higher." The appareut .consumption of buttet is estimated at 24.81b. a head in 1936, against 25.21b. in 4934 and 1935, and only 18.71b. in 1930. Margarine consumption, accordin gto the report, rose from 8.41b. a head in .1935 to 8.71b. last year, although remaining well below the 1930 figure of 11.81b. Britain absorbed more than four? fifths of. the butter entering worl^ trade, more than half the cheese and eggs and practically all the baconi. Total imports of dairy, pig and poultry. products into tho United Ejngdom in 1936 cost nearly £8,500,000 more tbaq in the previous year, following an in*- ! crease of £3,000,000 betweon 11)34 and 1935. . . - Ki Significant Features. : V. Features of signifieance which affec-1 ted the trade in dairy products in 193t| were the uufavourable weather, in tralia, and the consequent .reductiofi in the export of butter, the unusually mild autumn and winter weather throughout Europe, which greatly increascd . the winter expor-ts- of butter and eggs> apd the -poor- cereal harvests, parti'cularly ih the' United States, which had an effec't on pig products, and also eaused the importation of a certain-quantity of dairy products. The most important feature on the demand s)de was probably the increased purchasing power . arising from fireatey indugtrial activity, Thus,, a relatively large increase in butter prices in the Upited Kingdom was- accompanied by only a relatively small deeline in "pnsumption. .