PRICE OF BUTTER

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2256, 29 March 1921, Page 3

PRICE OF BUTTER

ALL BRITISH CONTROL CEASING. THE LOCAL POSITION. The Prime Minister has received a cablegram from the High Commissioner stating definitely that the control of butter in the United Kingdom will cease at the end of this month. ' The message is as follows: — The Ministry of Food announces that its control over the import, distribution, and prices of butter will be revoked on March 31st, and that the trade distribution to March 31st will be the last allotment of Government butter. Thereafter the Ministry’s stocks will be sold from the stores to approved first-hand buyers, who will be at liberty* to sell to any customer without restriction. This revocation will render the term “Government butter” unnecessary, as the public will be able to purchase according to type, quality, and price as in precontrol days.

This cablegram confirms what had been auuouneed already. The British Government is relinquishing all control of the butter market, and the trade will revert fully to the old conditions.

Just what effect the change is going lo have upon the New Zealand market is not yet known; The matter has been considered recently by representatives of the butter producers, in conjunction with the Director of Agriculture, and probably some definite information will be placed before the important conferences that are to be held in Wellington this week. It has been suggested in some quarters that the local price of butter will rise when control ceases, owing to the fact that the Imperial contract for the purchase of New Zealand butler at 2s (id per pound will run out at Ihe same time. Il is assumed that the Government subsidy of (id per pound on butter consumed locally will cease to be paid when the contract expires. Bui well-informed opinion is that the local price will not rise. , The producers have eontended in the past that they were entitled'to the London parity price for all butter consumed in New Zealand, and il was in recognition of the justice of this demand that the New Zealand Government agreed last year to pay a subsidy of (id per lb. in order that the local consumer might get' the bn I tor at 2s 3d per pound (over the counter). If the producers accept the London parity price after next month the local price is more likely to fall than to rise.

LOWER PRICES EXPECTED IN LONDON. CHEESE MARKET FIRM. London, March 20. Butter traders anticipate a fall of from fourpenee to sixpence per pound in the retail prices of imported butter when the free sale of Government stocks commences in April. Meanwhile, Danish has hardened to 2(50s per owl-., c.i.L, owing to the good demand in the Midlands and the north. Cheese is firm, but is likely- to be easier with the arrival of four steamers from New Zealand next week, except coloured, winch is scarce.