PROFITS ON BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1921, Page 7

PROFITS ON BUTTER.

ENGLAND’S GREAT DEMANDS. MARGARINE NO MENACE. An optimistic view of the future of the butter market was held by Mr. H. G. Flint, a director of A. J. Alills and Co., London, in an interview given to the Sydney Telegraph. Mr. Flint was a member of the Butter and Cheese Importing Committee, controlling the distribution of, butter and cheese during the war, also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Food for butter and cheese. The committee will continue to act while butter is controlled. Having thus been within the inner circle, as it were, and connected with the control since its inception, Mr. Flint was naturally interested in the Imperial Government butter contract with the Australian producers for this season. He makes no secret of the fact -that, in his opinion, the two delegates who went from Australia to negotiate the sale made a very favorable contract for the producers. Also that the addition to the price which was obtained when they found that the retail price in England was to be raised should be very gratifying to all concerned. “It is very fine to know, in the circumstances,” said Mr. Flint, “that Australia is now having such a productive season. It is to be hoped that as much butter as possible will be sent from this side, because in England they are exceedingly short; in fact, for a long time we may be said to have been butterless—as can be imagined when the ration was at the rate of one ounce per week. The ration has been raised during the last few weeks to 2oz per head weekly, but even that is still cutting it very short.” SUPPLIES FROM SIBERIA. The estimated pre-war consumption of butter in England, the visitor explained, was 4oz weekly for each person. The opinion was that it will be quite a long time before supplies at that rate will again be forthcoming. The fact is there is a world’s shortage of butter, and as far as England is concerned, it cannot be made up until some of the older producing countries begin to export again. The shortage at present is principally due to the cessation of export from Siberia, and Mr. Flint says it may be many years before that vast country regains its former position as a butter exporter to England. The actual position in Siberia, so far as dairying is concerned, is an unknown quantity. There is also a shortage in supplies from Denmark, Holland, and France. Although Denmark has picked up wonderfully in production, she has such a demand for her butter from other countries that the quantity left for England is much smaller than in pre-war days.

BUTTER PRICES WILL HOLD. As for the maintenance of the overseas demand, Mr. Flint regards the prospects as very good. “At the same time,” he adds, “I do not think we can look for higher prices, although they should not fall from present high levels to any extent, except perhaps during the English summer, when the Home production and Irish butter are on the market. Of course, a great deal depends upon the industrial position. At the present time labor seems to be assuming an unreasonable attitude in asking for more money and less work, the effect of which will be less employment. While there would be only sufficient butter for the wealthy or better-off classes, industrial and trade depression would have its. effect on prices.” Mr. Flint does not fear margarine as a competitor of Australian butter. Although there is an enormous consumption of margarine in Groat Britain, producers here, he is convinced, need not have any fear that margarine will ever displace good quality butter. The great bulk of the people of England will be only too glad to get back to butter as soon as supplies become available. Of course there will be always a considerable demand for margarine,' because a large proportion of the population cannot afford to buy butter. Nobody, he says, buys margarine for preference. A good word as to the quality of Australian butter is voiced by Mr. Flint. “During the control it is very gratifying to be able 'to’ say that the quality of the butter from this side has been kept up to a very high standard. Unfortunately, with some other countries, notably Denmark and the Argentine, quality has declined. In Denmark, because the butter has been sold at a flat rate, there was no incentive to strive for a higher grade. That shows the benefit of the sliding scale as in the Australian contract.” SLACK DEMAND FOR CHEESE. The outlook for cheese is less encouraging than the prospect for butter. Up to this year, Mr. Flint explains, cheese has paid producers better than butter. During the war. of course, cheese formed part of the soldiers’ ration, and the Government classed cheese as a necessary food, and butter as a luxury. As a result, relatively better prices were paid for cheese. Now, however, the demand has ceased, and army requirements being comparatively limited, while the world’s supply, is quite up to, if not above, the normal, lower prices must, he thinks, be looked for in the future. Concentration upon butter and bacon is Mr. Flint’s strog tip to the Austra lian dairy farmer. He sounded a strong note of warning in connection with the boom in other parts in the extraction of by-pro-ducts from milk. “I would advise all to go slowly,” Mr. Flint says, “with the production of dried? skim-imlk, because the trade at the present time is a limited one in the Old Country. But what I would advocate as the best adjunct to the dairy farm is the pig. There is an unlimited demand at Home for good bacon, and I understand that the demand for it in Australia is also very good. Therefore the dairy farmer should do everything possible to increase the output of bacon and ham. Pig-raising undoubtedly appears to me to be the most profitable way of utilising the skim-milk and butter-milk, and there need be no fear of over-produetion, because when the demand here is overtaken England can take all the bacon that Australia can send her. My experience is that the bacon turned out in Australia is of first-class saleable quality, and there is no reason why Australia should not build up a permanent trade in the export of this product.”