THE BUTTER MARKET

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 387, 23 November 1932, Page 4

THE BUTTER MARKET

The news from London indicating that New Zealand butter has dropped in price to 88s per cwt. does not make pleasant reading. Indeed it is most disheartening that it should cohie at a time when hopes were being entertained of a general improvement in the tone of the dairy produce market. This hope, j coupled with the splendid season I which the farmer is now enjoy- ! ing, gave the primary producers | a measure of encouragement 1 which was badly needed. The ! price slump comes as a keen disI appointment. It is not wise, howi ever, to take too gloomy a view | of the situation. It seems fairly i plain from informatio.n available j that the market has become de- ! moralised. Heavy shipments of |new season's output are being ! landed and it appears plain that j supplies are well ahead of exist1 ing demands! Backed by its ex•port bonus Australia has also, | been shipping largely and there, | also, an exceptipnally good season 'has been enjoyed. But the 1 danger arising from oversupply ; has been realised and there is to be a 20 per cent. reduction from ; the first of next month. It may ; further be reasonably taken that j anticipation of additional heavy ; future supplies has also had its | effect upon purchases. Indeed, J cables indicate that firms who have bought forward have been j badly hit. The most disquieting feature of the whole situation, j however, lies in the great dis- | parity shown between Danish and New Zealand. If .we are to retain belief in the high standard of our product the difference of 34/- per cwt. between New Zealand and Danish butter must be . satisfactorily explained. Given in i the slump following on over sup"jply, there must be something j more behind this disparity. It is acknowledged that the Danes have the advantage of proximity to the market and that they have . caught and held the taste of the j British consumer, but the per- ; sistence and growth of this dis- | parity is something which calls i for immediate and searehing inI vestigation. Disguise it as we ; may there is a growing uncomfortable feeling in the country that our butter is not retaining its one-time undoubted position of superiority on the British market. The Governor-Generah Lord Bledisloe, as a keen farmer and acknowledged ^uthority on agricultural matters, was one of the first to draw attention to the possible deterioration of our butter by the accepted methods of manufacture. Has there been a sacrifiee in texture and flavour to the advantages of quantity production? His Lordship is inclined to think there has been. Then again We have a valuable opinion from Mr. Ian McMillan, of Stratford, who has just returned from a seven years' stay in Denmark where he has been studying the latest methods in the manufacture of dairying machinery. He points out that the Danes have 2000 factories, smaller than the New Zealand ones, of which we have between 500 and 600. "That is where the Danes have progressed beyond us," he says. "The farmer there attends solely to the production of milk and leaves manufacture to the factory. There is no home separation in Denmark, as the Danes would rather build a small factory than*separate, and send the cream over a distance. I spoke to managers of Auckland and Waikato factories about this on my way home, and they think they could make better butter if they received the milk direct." He also mhintains that" the Danish product has a fine aroma and is superior to ours in texture, taste and spreading quality. Another point worth remembering is that at the last Empire dairy show Queensland left New Zealand well behind in the awards-. These facts are not mentioned

with a view to disparaging the New Zealand output, but in the 1 hope that some thought may be given to the problem ahead. Our eggs are very much all in one basket and we need to exercise care against an undue percentage of breakages. The slump in prices on a glutted market can be understood and hopes reasonably entertained for rectification following a regulation ' of sitpplies, but the assumption ddes not holcl good in connection with the disparity £rice: margin between the Danish and' New Zealand products. Regulation :pf supplies may restore norma! conditjons to the' market and greatly improve the present disheartening position, but necessity for ihe "closest atteiition • -to • quality should not be overlooked.