THE BUTTER RECORD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 86, 31 March 1908, Page 4

THE BUTTER RECORD

EXTRAORDINARY PRICES. London, February H. "There never was sucli times.'' in Tooley Street, at any rate, since the day* of the great lire. Urease was at the bottom of the trouble then, and grease is the prime cause o£ the trouble to-day. Then, however, it was chiefly vulgar grease—tallow, principally; now it is butter. Fancy Australasian butter being sold at anything from 144s to 152 a per cwt! This is easily a record price for any sort of butter for the last tive-and-twenty years, though a few grey-headed salesmen have a recollection of one particular season, mole than thirty years ago, when fancy brands ol Normandy were sold at ltils per cwt. in early April, and the shortage was such that the wholesale houses in many eases were quite uuable to supplytheir regular customers at any price.

The extraordinary prices for Australasian butter current in Tooley Street must be causing great excitement iu the producing and shipping centres in Australia and New Zealand, and one effect will be that, not fully realising tliat these prices are solely the outcome or the shortage of colonial butter, factory managers will expect next season enhanced prices. As it is, the Commonwealth butter people ale, on the whole, reaping the advantage of London quotations more than New Zealanders. A fair volume of Xew Zealand butter was , sold forward for the whole season at moderate prices, and in such cases the buyers are now getting back some of the money they lost in similar transactions last season. Victorian mostly conies along consigned, and a quantity shipped butter is sold r.i.'. Lundoi] week by week. In each case Australia is now scoring.

What of the future of the butter market'; It is a true and well-worn saying that "one extreme brings another,'' and so it will be in the present instance. Before the summer of 101)8 has far advanced. butter "ill again lie in good supply. Already we learn that in scleral butter-producing countries large and up-to-date machinery i- being put down, so as to cope with the deman 1. W e may just now have to spread our butter very carefully, but in due course we shall have bread buttered as cheaply as it has been for many years past. Meantime, the "shilling" butter known to the housewife has gone. The lowest price is Is 2d, and seems sure to go to Is 4d. At this figure the demand will certainly fall off very materially, and butter in many houses will disappear in favor of margerine and jam, marmalade and such "relishes" will be brought into play as being cheaper than the usual bread covering. Still, no real relict from the present situation can be exacted till April is with us, and if the European spring is unfavorable to grass production it may be May W lore we get down to a reasonable range of prices. The reason for the present range of prices is not far to seek. The total imports) of butter for 1007 were 4,210,433 cwt.; of this quantity 93G,539ewt. came from Australasia and Canada (35,000 cwt.), and 3,279,89tiewt. from foreign countries. The grand total compares with 4,337,258cwt. in I'JOli; the arrivals • from the colonies in 190G were 1,048,4G7 Icwt. (Canada, 190,908cwt). The colonial shortage shown in these totals is not a very considerable one, because in • the early part of last year imports from Australasia were exceedingly heavy, but the arrivals from the Commonwealth m the latter part of 1907 fell far short of normal figures; in, fact, tin; butter famine now prevailing took its start from that period. For many years past our winter supplies of butter have mainly come from (1) Denmark, Sweden, etc., (2) Siberia, and (3) Australia and New Zealand, and merchants and brokers have to rely on these sources in order to supply the wants of the British public in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large centres of consumption. Talcing Denmark lirst, i!H)7 showed a decrca-e of 38,000cwt.; Russia and Siberia sent us 50,000cw1. more than in the previous year; Australia's figures iiave Ih'cii given above. Considering the figures for the first month of the present year, the total arrivals show a livop of 87,000cwt.; from the-colonies we received 119,000c\vt., against 174.500 iu January, l'JUti; from foreign countries our imports iu the -ame month • were 228.000cwt., against 200,000 for January. IHOti. It is assumed here from the weather conditions that prevailed iu Australia in the producing period, that nothing in the direction of a serious recovery can take place this season, and that there will be a shortage of something like 500,000 liu\e- of butler i 12.5U0 tons) by April next. The wholesale market prices for AusUala-i.m bulter in Tooley Street to-ilay murk an advance of over 50 per cent, on llio-e ruling at the same pel Toil a year ago. Then only a limited quantity of the very Is'st Australasian was making over 104s, and the average lor the finest was not above 102s.

A curious point in (lie situation is the assimilation in price of New Zealand and Danish. These butters have Wen exactly the same in price since hist Friday, a thin;.' which h:i> never ocuvred before, it i- believed, in the hi-tory of the butter trade, Danish liultev enjoying a premium of f>s to S- per cwt. over New Zealand.