BUTTER AND CHEESE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1921, Page 7

BUTTER AND CHEESE.

AN ENCOURAGING OUTLOOK. I DAIRY MANAGER’S REVIEW. At a meeting of suppliers to the New Zealand Dairy Company, held at Aka I Aka last week, Mr. A. J. Sinclair, aasistI ant-general manager tp the company, I referred to the serious position conI fronting dairy farmers. Mr. Sinclair said the action of the I London houses handling produce on consignment in desiring to reduce the adI vance payments on produce awaiting shipment to Is for butter and 6d for I cheese came as a complete surprise. | Some slight reduction certainly had been I anticipated,. but the present position of the produce market at Home did not in itself warrant any drastic step of this kind. He believed that the fact of serious developments in other directions was having a depressing effect in financial circles in London. The position of butter on the Home market was very complex, although there were several hopeful features that should not be ignored. The Danes were selling freely to Belgium, France and Sweden, and their surplus winter make available for the United Kingdom would be less than usual. For some months Ireland had been shipping considerable quantities, but on the o€her hand recent information concerning the Argentine position showed that a dry spell was being experienced there. Two dominating factors would fix the price of butter this winter

I —the industrial position at Home and the stocks held by the Imperial GovernI ment. Although the position regarding unemployment was not so serious in Britain as in America, it had affected the butter consumption materially, because this had shrunk to a normal demand of 2500 tons weekly, which was about half the consumption in 1914. From detailed reports just to hand concerning the position of the London market six weeks ago, the general imI pression was that the price for the seaI son would approximate 224 s London, I which meant, roughly, 200 s f.o.b. New I Zealaind ports. In some quarters this estimate was considered low, but it was (admitted generally that the Imperial I Government held the key to the position. IHe was convinced that high grade proIduce would sell well. | The general impression in the trade was that cheese prospects were good, and I Mr. Goodfellow had advised that all I cheese factories should keep running ful) I time this season. The low prices quoted ' lat the present time in London were a reflex of the disordered conditions at Home, and he admitted that if matters in connection with the Government’s internal policy did not improve in the near future, any information of a hopeful nature was unreliable. I Mr. Sinclair referred to the serious position in which many dairy farmers I would be placed by the cutting down of i advance payments even for a short time. A cable received from Mr. Goodfellow • the day before stated that the advance payments had not yet been fixed. Many farmers who had bought in during the past two ears would probably have dif- - ficulty in meeting interest charges which might fall due within the next few months. He regretted that in some cases where this had already occurred the mortgagees had acted arbitrarily, with , disastrous results. In spite of the *’D yrary restriction of credit by the t omoi houses, Mr. Sinclair believed t'wu was nothing whatever in the marked conditions to I warrant dairy farmers losing • heart.