The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1931. THE DAIRY PRODUCE MARKET.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1931. THE DAIRY PRODUCE MARKET.

Aj-’TKR a prolonged decline, prices for wool have lately been firmer, and the outlook favours the probability of still higher rates, but in respect of the overseas market for New Zealand dairy produce the position remain s critical. Not only have values collapsed since the New Year, but the prospects of more favourable conditions appear more remote than at any time since the opening of the export season .in September of last year. Recently the Otago Time s points out, prices for both butter and cheese receded to a point considerably below the cost of production. The dairy farmer finds himself confronted by a situation corn. parable to that which faced the pastoralist when wool values reached their lowest last November. Quotations contained in the official reports of the Dairy Produce Board make gloomy reading, and all the trade advices ha s lately been couched in most discouraging terms. The market value of Now Zealand butter in London at the present time is approximately 106 s per owt. compared with L22 s at the beginning of October. Cheese is in no {letter ease, the current price of about 48s per cwt. being 25s below the figure quoted by the Dait’v Produce Board for the week ended October 3. Since the beginning of the present year the market has been very slow. Following the drasticreduction of stocks at low prices m January and February, buttei made a. feeble attempt to rise, but cheese lias at no time this season shown any real strength of price, and the demand for this commodity has not been improved hy the gradual accumulation of stocks that has been reported Curing recent weeks. The dairying industry in the Dominion has this year maintained a high level of activity, hut not oven the constant stimulation of production, which the Government Statistician remarked in Alarch, can he expected materially to diniinsih the effect of iimo in a i bets at Home. No doubt

the unfortunate closing of the former outlets for New Zealand butter in Australia and Canada has contributed to me present difficulty, inasmuch as the full weight of increased production in the Dominion has had to he borne by the already overloaded market

the United Kingdom, which is free and onen to all comers. Little er-i he done in the Dominion to restore values to a more profitable level, hut what praci'cal steps may he taken should not he delayed. It is necessary in the first place that the people of New Zealand should realise the serious character of the crisis that lias descended upon the dairying industry. The position is acute, and the only suggestions thatcan he made for the relief of it may seem almost, platitudinous at a time like the present; It i essential that renewed efforts should he made in the direction of raising Ihe standards el quality, reducing still further Ihe costs of production and handling end establishing better relations with the market by meeting its requirements in even the smallest detail. To such considerations more than usual prominence bns already bean given by the industry this season, out if improvement can still he effected, it is highly important that no time should he lost in ejecting them.