BUTTER MARKET.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1925, Page 1

BUTTER MARKET.

THE LONDON DECLINI

AUCKLAND, Dec. 2. The London butter market continues to decline. Messrs Joseph Nathan and Co.. Ltd., to-day received a cablegram from their London office quoting butter at lfXi-s io 200 s per cwt. The message adds that “the market is depressed under the influence of attempted sales of stale stored butter from recent overseas arrivals on on unwilling market. ’ Commenting on this advice, a prominent Auckland exporter said it used to he thought that butter could be stored for live or six months without injury. The trade was now educated to distinguish butter that had been long in store. It did not go rancid or “fishy.” hut it had not got the fresh nutty flavour that should belong to the best butter. What quantity r" stale butter was being offered in London the exporter eould not cstivinte. Possibly it was a small surplus from the 192-1-25 season’s make which could not he shipped promptly owing to the seamen’s strike. On the other hand, it might he produce held in store in New Zealand to take advantage of the higher prices that generally obtained in London in the autumn. Tn any case, the effect of this stale butter on the London prices should he a warning to producers generally, and to the Dairy Control Board particularly, that butter eould not he field in store for long periods without affecting its qualify. The trade in London was alive to the fact that depreciation followed nrolonged storage, and would,

discriminate accordingly. "While agreeing generally with these views, another exporter said that there must he some weak feature in the market apart from stale stocks to account for the decline. He believed there were only a few thousand boxes of stale butter offering. They should have been shipped from "Wellington in August, or September, hut the strike intervened. So small a quantity would not greatly influence a strong market; lint if, as appeared to he the case, there was a weakness, the effort to clear stale stocks must depreciate prices. This was especially the ease at present, as the London trade could await, the arrival from New Zealand of freshly made stocks, which were on route.