MEETING LOWER PRICES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 969, 12 May 1930, Page 11

MEETING LOWER PRICES

A BIG DAIRYING YEAR LARGE PROVINCIAL INCREASE With the actual end of the recognised dairying season only six weeks off, and the balance of the butter-fat which can be expected to come forward being of an almost negligible quantity, factory managers in all parts of the province are now in a position to make a very fair estimate of their 1929-30 turnover. Reports to hand indicate that there will be few factories of any size which will not show* increases ranging up to ever 25 per cent, in several instances on the output of last year. Production in the Auckland Province has been maintained on particularly high levels, but, even over the rest of New Zealand, the production of dairy produce has received a big boost ever the past year, and an all-round increase is expected; so mcich so, in fact, that, in the final analysis, the fall in the price of primary overseas will not be noticed in Zealand’s export figures for dairy produce, even when they are compared with the previous season’s record figures. In the Auckland Province, for instance, it is expected that there will be an average increase in production of aroLind 18 per cent., while the average expected decline in prices should work out at somewhere in the vicinity of 11 per cent. This season it is confidently expected that dairy produce to the value of approximately seven and three-quarter millions sterling will be exported from Auckland farm lands; this, of course, is additional to that sold for local consumption. The latest statistics of prodLiction in the province show that the usual seasonal decline set in during April. The yield was 9,927,0001 b of butter-fat, a drop of over 2,000,0001 bon that of March. Compared with the previous April, however, last month’s output was nearly 3,000,0001 b, or 41.74 per cent, greater. Increases were shown in production both for butter and cheese, the butter figures for last month being 8,715,0001 b, compared witli 6,178,0001 b, and the cheese figures 1,212,0001 b, against 824,0001 b. The following table shows the details of the production of butter and cheese in the Auckland Province in terms of pounds of butter-fat for the first ten months of the current dairying year, compared with the corresponding periods of the preceding season : 1929-30. 1928-29. July 1,308,000 1,420,000 August .. .. 4,132,000 4,305,000 September .. 8,696,000 7,995,000 October .. .. 15,310,000 12,356,000 November .. 15,229,000 35,590,000 December .. 19,454,000 16,452,000 January . .. 17,721,000 16,625,000 February . .. 14,814,000 11,537,000 Marth .. .. 12,319,000 10,221,000 April 9,927,000 7,002,000 Totals .. 121,910,000 103,503,000 Figures relating to the quantities of butter and cheese in store at the end of April emphasise the pressure that has been put on storage space. On April 30, the Auckland grading stores held 93,377 cwt of butter and 58,353 cwt of cheese, compared with 49,757 cwt of butter and 21,654 cwt of cheese on. April 30 last year.