BUTTER MARKET.

Shannon News, 24 December 1929, Page 4

BUTTER MARKET.

INCREASE IN SUPPLIES. EFFECT ON PRICE. AUCKLAND, Dec. 17. The unsettled state of the overseas market for dairy produce is emphasised in the weekly cables received by the Auckland merchants reporting a decline ■in butter prices, while the cheese market is stated to be suffering temporarily from the absence of demand.

During the opening months of this season butter showing a firming tendency and the decline which set in about six weeks ago was regarded as likely to be of a temporary nature. The latest advice, however, strikes a less optimistic note. The increase in the butter production for the four months August i,o November, in comparison with those months of last year, has been announced by the Dairy Division of the Department of Agriculture to be 9.56 per cent. That the effect of combined buying is at last becoming apparent, with the tendency for the market to be overstocked with butter, is the view taken by Mr W. Goodfellow, managing director of Amalgamated Dairies, Ltd. "During tho past two years the drought conditions in both Australia and Argentina have contributed to the comparative shortage of supplies," he said. "So long as supplies are short competition from even a limited numof buyers will maintain prices at a satisfactory level, and that has been the position during the past two seasons. This, season we are again having a substantial increase in production and jn addition Australia is having an excellent season, with the result that the market is going to be over-supplied for the - next three or four months in spite of the fact considerable quantities have been diverted to eastern Canada. '