PRICE OF BUTTER

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1926, Page 4

PRICE OF BUTTER

SOARING IX AMERICA. PALMERSTON X., January !’>. While butter-fat prices in New Zealand have slumped to Is -Id a lb, they have jumped to 3s on the Pacific Coast of the United States, where Danish is on sale. Mr Herman Seifert, a well-known Manawatu farmer, was there recently, and naturally he wants to know why the Dairy Control Board cannot land New Zealand butter on the Pacific seaboard as cheaply ami as easily as the Danish. “ This country has set up a Dairy Control Board to look after the dairyman’s interests and to sec that he gets the best prices obtainable for his butter,” said Mr Seifert. “Some of the dairy farmers’ hard-earned money has been spent in sending delegations round the world to get first-hand information so that the dairyman might get better returns for his labour and capital. When I left London about three months ago a second delegation had arrived there at the expense of the dairyfarmer, I suppose to look still deeper into lmtter prices with a view to assisting the hard-working cow-spanker to earn a. decent living.

“ It does not look as if they have tnot witli mucli success; as on my landing back home I found that ohr’ butter market had collapsed and that factories were paying out round about Is 4d per lb for butter-fat. This came as a great surprise to me, because when, f left the United States the butter market was booming and there was not the slightest indication of a set-back in price. As I left there only on December 2, it seems strange that some of our butter lias not been sent there to relieve the London market. “ When I was in Seattle last October I saw Danish butter advertised for sale, but not a single pound of New Zealand was in sight. It may well bo asked: What is our control board doinf? What is wrong with our butter?

What is wrong with our system ot marketing? There must be something wrong somewhere if Danish butter can lind a profitable market on the Pacific seaboard of : the United States and we, with a direct, subsidised steamer service to San Francisco and Vancouver, ■ cannot find a market there at all. “It. looks as if all our produce is being dumped on to the London market to help further depress tho wretched earnings of the New Zealand dairyman. Why can wc not send butter to the Pacific Const cities ol America ? If T remember rightly the duty is about scl per lb and shipping and other charges are certainly no more than they are to the London market. If that is the case there would certainly be a handsome margin. Even if butter were sold at the same prices as on the London market the producer would benefit, because the relief thus afforded would prevent) the disastrous dumping of butter in London, which has meant a loss of so many thousands of pounds this year.”