COMPETITION IN BUTTER.

Shannon News, 12 August 1927, Page 3

COMPETITION IN BUTTER.

SOME LOOPHOLES DISCLOSED. METHODS OF THE BLENDER. At the conclusion of the address by Mr. W. A. loms, of the Dairy Control Board, on Tuesday, at Levin, Mr. S. Bowker asked him Avhat the Board had done to prevent New Zealand butter from being sold as Danish. Mr. lorns said they haa advertised New Zealand butter and pushed it evervwhere, in the Old Country. He did 'not think that a great deal of New Zealand butter Avas sold as Danish. In the Midlands, Danish butter had a tremendous hold. At Birmingham the Board got 2800 retailers to make a display of New Zealand butter and cheese. The Board had done a great deal to push the Dominion's pro--ducts, and the Empire Marketing Board Avas doing much in the same direction now. Nobody had done more than Sir James Allen in this connection. The speaker thought that there was not a great deal, of New Zealand butter sold as Danish, but a great deal of it Avas used in blending. ■Mr. Bowker contended ihat thcr« was very little New Zealand butter sold as suchj and he had evider.ee of it in the Old Country. Mr. Ioms: I would not say that. It is very hard to go to a retailer and sav, "You have to sell this as New Zealand batter. " He has to sell wh.-r he can get the moat out of. Mr. Bowker said he had known a case where 4000 boxes arrived, yet not a pound of New Zealand butter could be bought. - Mr. lorns stated that the manager of a Tooley Street firm had told him that Irish'butter Avas the best that came in. The manager of a Manchester firm said that the best butter that came in Avas Finnish. These statements showed that the agents pushed the sale of Avhatever brand suited them. In a free-trade country such as England, if Dank-h butter was pushed out of one shop, it would be found- somewhere else. Mr. lorns advised dairy fanners to keep their produce to as high a standard as possible, ship it under the bo.-,fr conditions, and foster goodwill in the Home trade. The Board wished to , eliminate cold storage, as much as possible, particularly at the Home end. It should be stored in Ncav Zealand if lossible. "Don't think you are going to gull the buyers to buy stale butter," he. adeled, "be-taus-'e every one of them is a connoisseur of what he is buying." Mr R. G. Wall asked what butter the New Zealand article was principally blended with. Mr. lorns stated that in the past the Argentine butter was mostly used for this purpose. It Avas formerly as much as 40s. per cwt., beloAv the Dominion butter. Now that New Zealand, by price fixation, had brought Argentine | butter up to the same parity as it oavii, ' it Avas hard to say what the merchants would buy to blend with. The princi- j pal ingredients had been Argentine, I some Irish and Latvian butter, and a little buttermilk. This was sold AVith some fancy name or other, and represented as "packed in Devonshire.'' DIFFICULTIES OF DIRECT SALE. Another question ask«d of Mr. lorns was, if the export was regulated from New Zealand, Avhy could not the buttei be sold from the ship's side. He stated that this could not be done; the buttei had to be placed somewhere, and the agents bought on sample. "You will find a scout to meet the buyers of but-' ter and cheese as. they come down the street," lie adeled. The average butter consumption per week in Great Britain Avas 5000 tons, of Avhich 2000 tons was Danish. In the Midlands there a number of people who would luiv a certain quantity of Danish irrespective of the price. If there Avas a surplus of that butter left after that it brought doAvn the price of the whole supply. Mr. Bowker said that for every three pounds of Danish butter sold in the Midlands, two pounds of NeAv Zealand butter a'.t.s sjld there as Danish. Mr. lorns said he did not see how Danish butter could be eliminated During the Avar, Avhen England was in its Avorst economic position, the Government set up a commission to consider the distribution of produce from the ship's side to the consumer as cheaply as possible. They found that they could not do without' the broker and the wholesaler—the man avlio sent the vans round. An American meat firm for two years tried to defeat the wholesalers of Britain, and it cost them millions. Mr Verity: If the blenders in Knglaiid realise' that our buttei is as good as Danish, they Avill naturally sell i 1 as Danish. Mr Ioms: The blenders make a very fine, palatable butter, and they only make enough to last the week. The following week they bring in another cju-mtitv of fresh, blended butter. It won't keep; but people are prepared t:> give twopence a pound more for it than for New Zealand butter, because it is pu.-.hed bv the retailers. I could not M .e anv way of eliminating Hie blender, or'those who were selling ours as Danish, unless by an Act of Parliament in the Old Country. Members of the Umpire Marketing Board used to say to mo, and to other members of the Control Board, ''Yon men are killing the spirit of Empire trade by dictation and putting in. a system of prior price fixation." You can imagine what sort of a job I was up against, reading the newspapers. If we had never put in 1 nrice fixing, avc could have done a lot of | good for this country and put in our | butter as good as any in time to come.