Butter Market Widens

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 524, 29 November 1928, Page 8

Butter Market Widens

Canada Doubles Former Demand

THE market prospects are developing with entire satisfaction to the New Zealand dairy producer this season, and restricted sales in Australia through the imposition of a heavy tariff have been more than offset by an exceptional demand for our butter in Canada. Approximately 121 per cent, of the exportable butter surplus from this eountry will be sent to Canada before the exporting season is finished.

JgEGAUSE dairy produce is the lifeblood of New Zealand, and particularly of the Auckland Province, the slightest fluctuation in prices or in marketing prospects is likely to have a far-reaching effect upon the Dominion's prosperity. The Home market is figuratively the mercury in our financial thermometer. When it rises, all producers’ hearts /ire glad; when it tends downward, the countenance of the farmer droops in sympathy. Side by side with approximately a -r-k r,- &

rx iy rl? yli rfc Hr 10 pej* cent, increase in dairy production this year, the market for New Zealand butter in Canada has been widening rapidly, and by the end of the exporting season something like 12i per cent, of the exportable surplus will have been absorbed by our sister Dominion, and New Zealand’s sharein the profits of London marketing will be substantially greater. The steamer Turakina, which is to leave Auckland to-morrow for American ports and London, will take 98,000 boxes of hutter, of which 69,500 will go to Halifax, 11,500 to New York, and the remaining 17,500 to English ports. A few weeks hence the steamer Port Curtis will load 90,000 boxes of butter at Auckland for North American ports alone. This is the first occasion upon which a ship has taken a consignment of butter solely for the North American market, and the cargo of the Port Curtis will represent the greatest quantity ever shipped i

from Nevr Zealand to America at one time. The Canadian market has developed rapidly, and this year it has jumped to abnormal heights. In the year ending July 31. 1927. this country sent 2,660 tons to the Dominion of Canada, and in the year ending July 31 last the amount shipped was 2,450 tons. This season it will approximate 10,000 tons, or over four times the amount sent last year. This demand ill Canada for New Zealand butter is created by a variety of factors. Canada itself is actively developing the fresh cream and milk market across the border in the United States since the States eased the regulations upon those products, and a great deal of Canadian energy is going into the manufacture of loaf cheese, for which there is a healthy demand in the United States. On the other hand, there is a growing desire for hutter of the quality of the New Zealand product, and exporters here are taking advantage of every opportunity to fulfil the requirements. AUSTRALIAN MARKET GONE The market for our butter in Australia has gone, because of the heavy duty recently imposed by the Commonwealth, but the -1,000 tons which this Dominion has been sending across the Tasman annually’ Is more than offset by the absorption by Canadian consumers. The normal exportable surplus of butter from New Zealand ranges about 70,000 tons. This year it is expected to be in the vicinity of 75,000. Approximately 60,000 tons of this goes to Great Britain, but if Canada takes 10,000 tons this year, as expected, and the minor markets absorb their usual 2,000 tons, the Old Country will be expected to consume in the vicinity of 63.000 tons. This, exporters say, should be accomplished with ease. A fortunate circumstance in connection with the high demand in North America is that it has occurred at the flush of the season, when every outlet apart from the London market is welcomed by the New Zealand exporter. and when sales at Home will be better regulated by the diversion of these consignments to Canada. KEEPING PRICES UP Shipments to England are being watched by the Dairy Board, of course, but the January and February arrivals will be eased by the development of other markets, and this in turn will assist in maintaining the satisfactory prices which are being paid at the present time. By planting its foot firmly on the North American Continent, this Dominion has taken a momentous step toward the opening up of satisfactory markets abroad, and although private exporters in New Zealand have been operating with Canada for many years, this year's demand indicates that it will he a permanent and substantial factor in our export operations. In addition to that, the increase in production is gratifying in its general sense, and if prices remain high, more intense settlement, with a consequential higher production ratio, must follow, adding in time to our national prosperity’.