MARKETING PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 September 1922, Page 3

MARKETING PRODUCE.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l have been reading reports pf the Producers’ Marketing Association. I now put the following questions to the association:— Can the ssociation guarantee that the butter which they handle reaches the consumer as pure New Zealand butter and is sold ns such? Can the association guarantee ■that the butter does not enter margarine factories or blended butter companies, such as the Maypole Dairy Company? Which company has paid a dividend of 20 per cent? WTiat a dividend, while Great Britain was going through one of the worst financial years in existence I Now the Maypole Dairy Company and the Home and Colonial Companies specialise in butter, margarine, tea and latlc cheese, which are the only goods sold in their shops. Maypole Dairy Company advertised on June 22: “Best blended butter reduced to Is lOd per lb.” Three months before that date, in March last, we sold our butter at Is 2d to Is Id per lb to butter blenders. Now. what I want to know is this: What chance has the New Zealand butter got in competition with other butter sold? It should have every chance in the world when we guarantee by advertisement to the consumer that our butter is not adulterated, nor alended. that our butter is all British, comes from the finest pastures in the world, where the manufacture of our butter is conducted under Government supervision, and that the consumers are buying "pure New Zealand butter.” Then the margin in value between the British finest farmers and our produce will almost disappear in our favor. Why is it that Tooley Street will not advertise and guarantee that our produce reaches the consumer as pure New Zealand butter? Because any .ndlvldual butter merchant who tradM with u* has no security to keep our

trade, owing to the fact that if he created that demand which we require, other competition would compete against that merchant to trade our butter at a reduced figure. Why do the merchants put up their produce in neat, attractive saleable one lb and half lb packets? For three reasons, namely: Tire consumers demand to buy food that looks clean and appetising; the retailer prefers such packets for quick handling and sale; the merchants can give a guarantee of quality with their trade mark.—l am, etc., T. E. LARKING. Okato, August 31. >