COMMERCIAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4709, 9 June 1924, Page 3

COMMERCIAL.

VARIATIONS IN BUTTER PRICES. ' Why Danish butter should advance more rapidly, and fall less rapidly, than New Zealand butter, and why the discrepancy in price should vary from a shilling or two to 20s and 30s, are problems that no doubt the Dairy Control Board will endeavour to solve. The same questions are troubling the butter producers of Victoria. Referring to the much-discussed difference of 10s per cwt’ between the prices realised by Australian and New Zealand butters in London, Mr W. H. Osborne, manager of the Western District Co-operative Co., pointed put at the conference of butter and cheese factory managers held at Melbourne a fortnight ago that in almost every instance the difference between the prices of Victorian and New Zealand butter was not nearly as great as 10s per cwt. During the past season it had not at any time exceeded 5s per cwt. The larger discrepancy between Australian and New Zealand butter was due to the irregular quality of Australian butter as a whole compared with the uniform quality of the New Zealand product. Now that the uniformity of Australian butter was being greatly improved the difference in price should be smaller in the future. Mr Osborne further pointed out that while New Zealand was reported to be getting higher prices, it was strange that this was not reflected in the prices being paid to suppliers, and it was significant that Victorian dairy farmers were receiving for their but-ter-fat a higher average price than farmers in New Zealand. For the 192223 season the average price paid for butter-fat in New Zealand was ts 6.20 d per lb, while for the same period the average price paid by Victorian factories was Is 10.19 d per lb. The difference in favour of the Victorian factories was not always so marked, but every year the Victorian farmer received at least as high, and often a higher price than the New Zealand farmer Although the fact that there was a bigger local demand in Australia would, to a certain extent, account for the better price, he contended that there was no doubt that the costs of manufacture, handling, and marketing in Victoria were lower, and the Victorian factories could put their butter on the London market at a lower cost than New Zealand.