BUTTER IN AMERICA

Hokitika Guardian, 14 December 1925, Page 1

BUTTER IN AMERICA

(Australia \v N.Z. Cable Assmialbn.J NKW YOIIK. December 11. Tin' Australian Dress Association learns that a consignment <if Now Zealaiul butter which arrived at San Kran,.j s( . 0 ; i week a>. is selling so slowly in I lie American market that the principal wholesale butter dealer- are inclined to warn the maker.-* in Australia and Now Zealand against sending any further shipments during the cnmj 11 ,w inter. The slow demand lor New /calami butler is ascribed by the (Tiiteil Stales Department of Commerce in a considerable pari to ilm shape of the package. Dealers have emphasised the fact that there is discrimination again-i hut ter in hoses because American grocery stores are built to receive only a standard sixty pounds tub ill refrigerators, but the statistical position ol the butter market is above a.II responsible lor the poor prosperls lor foreign butlers in the United Stales. Butter in cold storage on November Ist totalled n-l,f)S:i.OOltlhs compared with Bio.OOII.ODD pounds at the same date in 102-1, hut ■he IO2A figures exceed the average storage over the last live years by more than two million pounds. It is. moreover. expected thai the domestic winter production will he greater than last. year, owing to (iovernnteni assistance and plentiful and cheap Iced. Butter prices remain high, however, being between fifty and fifty-three cents wholesale for ninty-two points grade, while the retail price, is fiftvseven cents, being ten cents higher than last year, when the market was depressed as a result of over-produc-tion. Very little foreign flutter is now arriving here, about eleven thousand pounds o I Danish ior I n igh 11\ . A wcent shipment of lorty thousand pounds of Siberian butter eighty-nine point grade, was sold at forty-eight cents, being readily bought by bakers. This was due to the high butterfat ami low moisture content. Wholesale dealers readily admit that Australian and New Zealand butter is wellknown and its high quality can usually he expected to find an outlet for it in the United States, hut the pres- 1 cut sensitive and weak market makes it wholly problematical how much can he absorbed at tlie present time. The Tariff Commission, cabled on July 21st is still examining the data of American butter producers, who asked for an increase in duty. r l he Commissioners point out they will merely correlate the data and submit it. to Mr C'oolidge since it is not in their province to recommend changes in the tariff.