BRITAIN’S DAIRY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 219, 16 August 1937, Page 5

BRITAIN’S DAIRY

NEW ZEALAND’S POSITION. CHIEF SUPPLIER IN 1936. New Zealand was the United Kingdom’s chief supplier of butter, cheese, pork and milk powder during 1936. She exported more butter to Britain than in any previous year, accounting for 29 per cent, of all imports. She supplied 63 per cent, of Great Britain’s cheese, a drop of 5 per cent, on 1935 : 56 per cent, of the pork, a rise of 18 per cent, on 1935 ; and 61 per cent, ol unsweetened inilk powder. New Zealand also was tlie main source of sweetened milk powder. These figures are given in the review by the Imperial Economic Committee entitled Dairy Produce Supplies in 1936. Imports of butter into the United Kingdom in 1936 l cached a record figure of 9,750,000 cwt., valued at £44,400,000. Supplies from Empire sources comprised 53 per cent, of the total, compared with 57 per cent in 1935, the decline being due to smaller shipments from Australia. Imports; from New Zealand, the chief source,! were greater than in any previous year. HIGHER PRICE LEVEL.

New Zealand'butter averaged 10 per cent, higher in price than in 1935 and Danish 6 per cent, higher. The .apparent consumption of butter is estimated I at 24.81 b a head in 1936, against 25.2 jib in 1934 and 1935, and only 18.7111 lin 1930. Margarine consumption, scc--1 cording to the report, rose from 8.4111 a head in 1935 to 8.71 b last veiftir.. although remaining well below the ISSf figure of 11.81 b. Britain absorbed more than ffowfifths of the butter entering weald trade, more than half the cheese and eggs and practically all the faawsn. Total imports of dairy, pig and p*sn!Hry products into the United Kingdom in 1936 cost nearly £8.500.000 more than in the previous year, following ;am increase of £3,000,000 between IOIM and 1935. SIGNIFICANT EEATURES. Features of significance wliicSt affected the trade in dairy products in 1936 were the unfavourable in Australia and the consequent reduction in the export of butter, the uorosttally mild autumn and winter weather throughout Europe, which grea% increased the winter exports of lfiutter and eggs, and the poor cereal harvests, particularly in the United Spates, which had an effect on pig and also caused the importation® of a certain quantity of dairy prodnwpts. The most important feature emi the demand side was probably the imrreased purchasing power arising; from greater industrial activity. Thus, a relatively larse increase in butter prices in the "united Kingdom was accompanied by only a relatively- small decline in consumption.