THE BUTTER MARKET.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 June 1921, Page 5

THE BUTTER MARKET.

POSITION IN BRITAIN. GREAT FALL IN PRICES. HEAVY GOVERNMENT LOSS. Londe i, May 13. j It was estimated that at the end oi March Government-owned butter in ©tore and still to arrive amounted to 50,000 tons. The greater portion of thia ifl Australian and New Zealand produce; the remainder is Argentine. New Zealand and Australian butter lias cost the Government about 2s lOd per pound tq land in this country. To-day one can!, purchase good quality at the retail price? of 2s 4d a pound. However much th« general public may. have benefited., ths past month has not been an one for those in the trade. When the Board of Trade took over from the Ministry of Food at the begin-' ning of April it was arranged that thel ; board should each week adjust the( wholesale price of the Governmentowned produce. On April 2, New Zealand! first and second grade was offered at? 262# per cwt., Australian first and set cond grade at 244# per cwti, Argentina at 2405. and Australian third grade ati 208 s. A fortnight later Australian first and second grade was raised to 250s M while Argentine was decreased to ?20a per cwt. On April 29 no alteration was made, and consequently there were no sales of Government butter. Last week the prices were lowered still further, first and second grade New Zealand being offered at 1925, first and second, grade Australian 186 s, third grade Australian 1765, and Argentine 16Sx pel* cwt. Since then, however, the board Lai announced that New Zealand butter itf withdrawn from sale for the present. The reason for this withdrawal is. of course, the fact that it is the very best description for storing, and no doubt the Board of Trade hopes that with the end ( of the strike the market will recover. There was certainly a downward tendency before the strike commenced, but prices could never have come down sat quickly to their present level had it notj been for the industrial trouble. In normal times the coalmining community and the people of the indu#tria! insist on having the bc#t butter. however, they cannot afford to buy it, and with Maypole margarine selling at, 8d a pound, it is only natural that the greater luxury should be dispensed with for the time being. News comes from Ireland that the price for the best butter has fallen by 100 s a cwt. in le#s than a month. Price® are expected to fall still lower Tha wholesale price of best butter in Cork at the present time is Is 44d a pound, which works out at 154 s per cwt. Although those in a position to express an opinion anticipate a rise in the market when the coal strike comes to hii end, they do not think that prices can get back to what they were a month I ago. The fact of the matter is that things have greatly changed in the past eight months. With the Danish, Dutch, and Canadian markets restored to normal, there is more than enough, with the aid of Colonial, Irish and home 1 manufactured, to meet the demand, and the fact that other European countries cannot afford to buy makes the supply available in England all the greater. I One thing seems certain, that the 1 British Government stand to lose anvthing up to £5,000,000 on their ' contracts.