BARE OF SUPPLIES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12622, 6 December 1926, Page 3

BARE OF SUPPLIES

HOME BUTTER MARKET PRICES RISE: IMPROVED PROSPECTS COMMENT ON POSITION Cabled advice was received by the New Zealand Dairy Control Board on Saturday to the effect that advances on dairy produce will bo raised 2d per lb on butter and Id per lb on cheese on all produce graded on and after December 4th. This makes the new rates of advances as follow : Creamery butter: Finest grade Is 2d per lb; first grade, Is lid; second grade, Is Oid. Whey butter: First grade, lid; second grade lOd. Cheese: Finest grade, 62d; first grade, 62d; second grade, 6sd. With a premium of 3s 4d per crate for finest grade cheese. Advances against store warrants will now be:—Creamery butter, £3 per box; whey butter, £2; cheese, £4 per crate. The former rotes of Is for finest butter and 6d for finest cheese have obtained since October loth. The Dairy Board has throughout protested that the advance on cheese in particular was on too low a basis, and the increase now is by a full penny. The cheese market is reported at late advices to be firm, but it has not witnessed so strong a rise as the butter market.

BARE MARKET. The acting-chairman of the board (Mr J. R. Thacker) commented upon this position and stated that the improvement in advances and tho market prospect would be welcomed by all producers. The whole of the new season's arrivals of butter, practically 2900 tons, had been cleared, *nd the lonic shipment of 70,000 boxes, arriving December 6th, would meet a market bare of New Zealand supplies. Australian advices showed that her export would likely be light on account of dry weather. This, together with the ending of the British strike, improved prospects considerably. The increased consumption by minors was also improving the cheese outlook. From the board's point of view, said Mr T'inekor, tho improvement in advances and the general outlook was satisfactory, as it definitely disproved tho mass of propaganda and misrepresentation with which the introduction of the boards marketing policy had been met. PRODUCER THE VICTIM. It was not surprising that that sectional opposition and propaganda had confused some producers. That attitude had been helped by the circumstances of the strike and the sustained storngo of Now Zealand butter. In connection with this storage, information was now available showing that American speculators had been responsible for tho holding up of several hundred thousand boxes of New Zealand produce as an investment. The blame for this had wholly fallen upon the New Zealand producer, who thus had been beaten with a stick of which he was himself more largely the victim than tho man responsible. These sticks, however, had now been absorbed, and he was confident that tlie board’s policy would result in normal marketing on a basis which would prevent a repetition of such experiences in the future.

FARMERS’ CHANCE. ' The suggestion as to a boycott had becu proved a myth by market events. Ihe advantages of tlio steadying effect of the price-naming policy of the joint committee of London importers and the agency would, ho was satisfied, appeal to regular distributors; and speculative propaganda would ultimately die a natural death. It was tho regular trader wlio made contact with the consumer, and it was with the consumer that the producer wanted his closest contact on tlie basis of quality and fair market price. Farmers now had the chance to kill for all time tho severity of tho annual slump, helped by manipulation, which in the past always affected New Zealand butter. Variations, of course, would take place, but ho was satisfied that the ixmrd'is policy would work to the ndvantako of consumer as well as producer, and would speedily work on to a basis of proving its advantages to producers and tho Dominion as a whole.