THE PRODUCE MARKETS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1922, Page 8

THE PRODUCE MARKETS.

PROSPECTS BRIGHT. According to Mr. S. Turner, the wellknown dairy produce buyer, prospects for the coming year in respect to both butter and cheese are undoubtedly bright. Writing to the Hawera Star, he says that about 6000 to 8000 tons of butter for June, July, August and September make have been sold from Is 31d to Is 7d. Fairly large quantities of cheese have been sold at Is f.0.b., and now that there are no accumulations on the English market we are in for a very good season, and I would not be surprised to see Is 6d paid out for but-ter-fat for the whole of the season. In the latter part of 1921, when our first arrivals of butter and cheese commenced to arrive on the English market, there were nearly one and a half million boxes of butter which, as soon as fresh butter arrived, was looked upon as old cold stored butter, and no doubt the cold storing had not been too carefully done, and had evidently been kept (some of it) for two years, as the quality seemed to indicate. This destroyed all confidence in New Zealand butter, and drove the public to Danish butter, with the result that the Imperial butter had to be sold in place of high-priced margarine. One of the leading margarine manufacturers informed me that he and another big firm had lost twothirds of their trade while the butter- was being sold. There were also large stocks of cheese, and our new season’s cheese coming on top of it made a considerable over-supply. The back-kick of commandeering ruined our prices this last season in cheese and butter, and we sold a lot of butter, more than any previous season, nearly two seasons’ make of butter and about one and a half season’s make of cheese.

This is all over now, and we can look forward to good markets, made be|ter by this sacrifice, and while there is no Government interference, even taking the drawbacks of the marketing schemes on rhe London market, the price of butter-fat next season on consignment should realise Is 3d to Is 6d.

I am confident that New Zealand will eclipse Denmark in the manufacture of butter and cheese. Denmark is drifting into the high-class cheese trade like Holland, and will produce less and less butter.

The farmer should be very severe on the carrying of his cheese, because he is losing a huge fortune every year owing to the deterioration caused by the handling from the factory to London. The price of New Zealand cheese can easily make 2d per lb more if cared for in as good a manner as the Canadians. It is more meaty and superior-bodied cheese than Canadian, but I wish to impress this warning on the minds of everyone connected with the New Zealand cheese industry: Don’t continue to handle cheese as though it was a non-perishable article, while it is a semi-perishable article.

I am glad to see that Taranaki cheese is now being placed in cold store in Wellington while waiting shipment. Better and more regular service boats are needed, and the old tramp must be culled out and become coal-carriers and not foodcarriers. The bottom of the market was reached last year. If we save slumps bj’ feeding the market one shipment at a time, and take cheese away from firms or schemers who have insufficient or no capital of their own, we will receive thousands of pounds more money. English cheese is nearly double the price of New Zealand cheese. Our quality must be improved >y careful handling. New Zealand cheese should be carried in cool conditions from the factory to refrigerator truck on the railway, and refrigerator boats on the coast, and refrigerated or stored in Wellington, and it should be made with less moisture in to give it a chance. It should be handled almost like butter. One way to help it is to dip the cheese in paraffin wax at over 200 degrees of heat. This will stop cracking and shrinkage. There is a big fortune waiting for New Zealand if they will just improve the quality of their cheese. Butter can hold its own with any country for quality, and cheese should be able to do--the same f it is handled properly from the factory ♦..> f.0.b., and the tramp steamers are cut out of the butter and cheese trade.