BRITAIN’S DAIRY IMPORTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 221, 18 August 1937, Page 8

BRITAIN’S DAIRY IMPORTS.

The Imperial Economic Committee’s report on Britain’s dairy produce imports in 1936 again provides very interesting information. This Dominion supplied more butter, cheese, pork, and milk powder thah any other country, a fact which not only emphasises the vast importance of the British market for our primary producers, but the hit'll quality of the produce which has returned more money to the producers than in the previous year-. In 1936 we exported more butter to Britain than in any previous year. Actually we supply that market with 29 per cent, of its total butter imports, 63 per cent, of the cheese, and 56 per cent, of the pork, besides 'being the main source for sweetened milk powder. Another record was established by the United .Kingdom in its imports of butter, but Empire sources provided 53 per cent, against 57 per cent, in the previous year. A poor season in Australia explains the difference. Our butter, it is worthy of note, returned on an average a price higher by ten per cent, when compared with the previous yedr’s. Consumption per capita of butter by people of the United Kingdom fell away, due perhaps to the higher prices, for it is a well-known fact that once butter prices tend to rise the use of margarine increases. In 1924 the annual consumption per head was 14.761 b; in 1931 it was 20.66 lb; and 25.21 b in 1934 and 1935. Last year there was a recession to ,24.81 b per head. On the other hand margarine rose from 8.41 b in 1935 to 8.71 b, but even at this figure it is well below that of 1930, 11.81 b. It is due to the very marked advance in the consumption of butter at Home that the enormous quantities marketed there in recent years have been saleable. Britain absorbs more than four-fifths of the butter entering her ports, more than half the cheese and eggs, and nearly all the bacon. But had prices'not. come within the reach of the poorer classes of her population it is questionable whether there would have been such a gain in the per capita consumption of butter. A good deal of educational work has been proceeding in the Homeland to encourage people to eat more butter and to drink more milk. The more liquid milk that is consumed the less there will be available for manufacture into dairyproducts. That the response has been'good is evident from the latest official reports. In July more milk was drunk than in any one month since the records were kept. Nearly fifty and a half million gallons were k sold for this purpose, the increase being little short of three and a quarter million gallons over the figure for July of last year. Milk holds a very high place among nourishing foods and a larger consumption both in this Dominion and in Britain would be reflected in the national welfare. The British Milk Marketing Board by its advertising campaign is rendering the nation a most valuable service in not only raising its standard of physical fitness through the consumption of greater quantities of milk, but in also reducing the quantities of home dairy produce that would otherwise have to be marketed.