BATTLE OF THE BUTTERS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4398, 3 April 1922, Page 2

BATTLE OF THE BUTTERS

x DANISH AND NEW ZEALAND. ' HOME PRESS VIEWS. “A MATTER OF'PREJUDICE.” Remarkably interesting are the contents of a letter received by the National Dairy Association of N.Z., Ltd., from its London representative, Mr R. E. Ellison, as follows, written under date' of February 7 : “Quite a lot has recently been said regarding the relation between the selling prices of Danish and New Zealand butters: The difference has certainly been out of keeping with the quality of t(h.e two butters- Danish to-day is 188 s and New Zealand 1365. The Danish has a big hold in the North! of England, as you are aware, K and have been told so often. The quantity of Danish during recent weeks available for the English mar-. kets has been restricted, due to a demand coming from France, Gerjniany, and Scandinavia, This demand shortens up. the quantify for this country, and at'' the same time enables the Danes to advance their price. This went at one period to 200 s and chocked the demand, with the result that . New Zealand and Australian butter began t.o find their way much more rapidly into the Danish, stronghold. The Danes then came down in price, so that their market might not be permanently injured. The Danes, as yon know, fix thein price from week to week. According to the demand they advance or lower tlieir quotation. New Zealand butter simply has to take its chance, and is subject *o all the influences which operate on a market such as this. It is quite • time the New Zealand interests ivere better controlled. Will anyone ever succeed in persuading our dairy farmers •to do something for themselves in handling this subject.'”

The .following article is. quoted from the “Yorkshire Post,” of January 28: “Which is the better value, New Zealand or Danish butter ? Housewives will answer in chorus;, ‘Danish,’ and they will be wrong., The trade experts say so, at any rate. They do’not allow prejudice to override facts, tfhejf declare, and retort with emphasis that the New Zealand butter is easily better value. Now, this coming week, New Zealand butter in Leeds will be retailed at Is 9d ' to Is lOd per lb, and Danish at 2sto 2s 2d. The price is rising, by the way. Why do tlhe public, then go for the dearer article, and incidentally help to swell the coffers of the Scandinavian dairy farmer, when they might, be encouraging their over-seas cousins ‘down under’ ? For Yorkshire folk, shrewd buyers as they are, have ( al ways gone ‘all out' for Danish butter. - “According .to the experts, it; is largely a matter qf prejudice. The public always look with suspicion upon butter in boxes, they say. "They can’t get away from the idea that it is margarine;’ said one, ‘and there isn't a retailer in the trade who won’t tell you of the prejudice against butter in boxes. If New Zealand butter were in c.asks, like Danish, it* would soon be favourite/ “The distance it has to travel makes this impossible, however. A couple of hundredweight, of butter in a box occupies only about the same space in a ship’s hold as a -hundredweight in a cask. There is the whole point. “Another circumstance which, according to the Butter trader,, has prejudiced the public against ‘Colonial butter’ is the ‘awful muck’—as one man described it—put on the market recently in the form of the large quantities which the Government had in stere. This is the butter which has been selling round about.is-per lb recently, But the experts are agreed that, if ffresh, the New Zealand butter is at least equal in taste and quality to Danish; “Australian butter is also very good, it is said, but not quite as goodas the New Zealand, the difference in value being Id to l%d per lb retail. “Another fact worthy of consideration is that if the' general favour were transferred to British overseas butter, the price of the Danish' article would auickly come down.”