WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 December 1927, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

.BUTTER PRODUC’TIOX. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) WELLIXGTOX, Dec. 1. In the Xovember number of " Business Conditions ” issued by the Alexander Hamilton Institute of Australia Ltd., there appears an interesting article on “The Development of Butter Production and Consumption.” It is pointed out that the dislocation of the dairying industries in the Northern Hemisphere during and immediately

after the war, enabled Xew Zealand Australia, and the Argentine to proli by the exceptional circumstances whicl they were not slow to do. As is usual ly the case when an impetus is given B any industry by ready markets at at tractive prices, over-expansion become more than a possibility. To the major ity of people on this side of the world the only country which appears to con

sume imported butter is Great Britain while-the only exporting countrio which oblige her m the gratification o this predilection are Denmark. Xev Zealand and Australia.

It is pointed out that out of some 1 tit) countries which engage in the business of importing and/or exporting butter, there are sixteen whose exports, as a rule, exceed their imports, and seventeen whose imports exceed their exports. The sixteen exporting countries are Denmark, Xew Zealand, Australia, the .Netherlands, Argentina, Sweden. Irish Free State. Finland. Latvia, Ksthonia, Italy. Lithuania, Serb-Croat. Slovene State, Canada. India and Hungary. The seventeen importing countries are: Great Britain. Germany, France, the United States. Austria. Belgium, Spain, Xorway, Poland. Switzerland. Czecho-Slovakia. Ceylon, Japan. Syria, and Lebanon, Algeria. Egypt and Tunis. It might he expected that the imports of the one group would balance the exports of the other group. They do not. Between Bill) and 1925 the population of\the principal butter-im-porting countries, viz: Great Britain, Germany. France and Belgium fell from 1(51 millions to 158 millions, a decline of approximately 2 per cent, but the population of Great Britain alone increased by nearly (i per cent. The exports of butter from the sixteen exporting countries from 1922 to the end of June 1927. compared with the average exports from the same countries for the period 1909-ld. shows that the average at the latter date 191) million lh; in 1922 it was 1122 million lb.; and in 192(1 it rose to 811 million lb. In the first six months of 1927 it was 157 million lb. against 107 million lb., in the first half of 1920. 'The export of butter for 192(1 increased by 71 percent compared with the average 1999-1.1, and had increased by .12 per cent compared with the exports for 1922. Judging hv the first six months of 1927, it would seem that the present year will show an even greater percentage increase. Bearing in mind the relatively stationary nature of the population normally supplied with these exports, and also the reduced standard of living which has been so conspicuous in other countries of late years, the great increase in butter exports is hardly conducive to the maintenance of a level of prices in keeping with the dreams of dairymen in Xew Zealand and Australia.

Taking the import figures of the seventeen countries it is seen that despite the herculean efforts of Great Britain in increasing her consumption of butter, the quantity coming forward is now so great that the proportion taken b.v her is rather less than it was in pre-war times. The average imports into the seventeen countries in 1909-11 was 8.11 million pounds, the imports of Britain alone averaged -1(5(5 million pounds, and the proportion of British imports to the total was 7-1 per cent. In 192.1 the British percentage was 81, but in 192(1 the total imports into the 17 countries had increased to 912 million lh ; the British proportion was (551 million lb and the percentage was 71. This percentage was maintained in the first half of this year. It is thus plain that of late years a larger proportion is going to countries where, with the exception of the United States, the general purchasing power and .standard of living are lower than Britain's. If an ever larger and larger surplus of butter is to bo distributed in countries which, with the exception of one. have less purchasing power than Great Britain, then, on this score alone, the prospects of high prices are not very assuring. The exports of Denmark, Xew Zealand and Australia in 1909-1.1 were 311 million lb., equal to (12 per cent of the total exports of the sixteen countries: in 192(1 the total was 199 million lh., equal to only 59 per cent of the total. The conclusion is inevitable—that the remaining thirteen countries, insignificant though their individual figures may appear, are collectively becoming formidable competitors providing with their lower labour and other costs, approximately 10 per cent of all the exportable supplies available, with the percentage increase.