BUTTER PRICES.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 May 1921, Page 7

BUTTER PRICES.

LOCAL POSITION UNCHANGED.

NEXT SEASON’S PROSPECTS.

The collapse of the English butter market is not expected to affect the New Zealand market to any large extent during the winter months, though it may cause certain grades of butter to become a little cheaper (says the Dominion). The export of butter made after March 31 is prohibited by the Government, and the Government is paying a subsidy of 2d per pound in order that the factories may receive 2s l%d per pound without increasing the retail price beyond 2s 3d. The prohibition will remain in force until the end of August, and in the meantime the position here apparently need not change. The butter for which the British Government paid 2s. 6d in New Zealand is (being offered in. London now at 192 s per cwt., or roughly la BAd per pound. If the factories were selling, on this parity, they would be receiving Is 5%d per pound for butter, and on that basis the local consumers would pay about Is 9d.

Nobody can say confidently what will be the position in the butter market when the new season commences in September next. The prohibition on export naturally will be lifted then, and the local price presumably will be determined by the export value. It is stated in London that the British Government’s accumulated stocks of butter may take so long to exhaust that they will come into competition with the new season’s output. If this should be the case, it might not affect prices materially, since the demand would be much keener for the new butter than for the old butter. In any case it is not expected that the high prices of last year will be realised again. A Waikato authority said recently that the factories ought to be well satisfied if they could obtain Is Gd per pound for 'next season’s output. This would give a local retail price of Is 9d or Is lOd per pound.