SPECULATIVE SALES

Shannon News, 17 February 1928, Page 3

SPECULATIVE SALES

HAVE THEY THE ADVANTAGE?

The beginning of the pesent season was characterised by great activity cm the part of forward export buyers and many impoitant'contracts were enter ed into both for butter and cheese eov ering manufacture up to ■ the end o; November and in some cases, up to en' 1 of December, stated tb.3 President (Mr M. A. Eliottj at the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce meeting or. Tuesday up to end of December. Thi prices paid were substantially in ad vance of the prices .realised for th< produce manufactured during the simi lar period for the proceeding season Markets however, had not yet bee; up to expectation and those who made such purchases of butter and chces< would be confronted with substantial • losses.

Some factories did not make forward sales, due to an expectation that price* would go higher and in other case:-. in pursuance of policy of consigning as that calculated to give the best all round returns. As applying to the first half of the present season, however, thdse factories which made specu lative sale? will this year have ad van tage over their consigning neighbours Many cheese companies maile a month ly advance to their suppliers from Sep tember to December of 1/6 per lb. which was substantially higher tha:. similar advances made last season. The davances made by butter companies had also been substantially higher during the opening of the season, averaging perhaps 2d per lb. higher. It must not be supposed however, that this justified an expectation that the full season's returns from butter eompan ies would be 2d per ib. higher than similar returns for the preceding sea son. The indication rather was that last season the ultimate realisation was better than was expected during the opening months of the season, whereas this season the realisation probably will not be quite as good as was expected. Careful observers arc of poinion that the butter companies' average returns for this season will be approximately equal to similar returns for the preceding season.