THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 December 1922, Page 8

THE COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER AND MEAT. London, October 13. Very few people know much about overseas produce, because so little ot it really is retailed for what it t is. If New* Zealand butter is sold without being “milk-blended” it is as often as not called “Danish” or “Irish Creamery.” Gratifying, no doubt, in a sense, for the public feel sure then that it is netting the best. But the oniy person who benefits financially is the retailer, who sells it at the highest price. Knowing full well that he is offering something that cannot be surpassed for quality. But this is not exactly good business from the New Zealand producers’ point of view, though it has been the custom for many years, despite occasional protests. Now, however, big wholesale buyers want to sell New Zealand producebutter and cheese —for what it really is. and they are keen to receive ample supplies. Retailers, too, would like to have it But both these grades of purchaser \ ant to be able to get their supplies on the spot. A retailer in Liverpool is not anxious to offer bis customers butter and cheese which he has to order from London. A New Zealander who has lately come from Manchester is greatly delighted, to find that the Manchester Consignments, Limited, which has lately purchased 1600 tons of New Zealand butter, proposes to divide the bulk of it up into pound portions, and guaranteeing it to be of first quality. The company has imported two first-class machines to cut the sections. One of the leading members of this company is Mr. Marshall Stevens. M. P. (a promoter ot the Manchester Ship Canal, and one of the few remaining original directors). He is a prominent Manchester citizen, who began business life there as a boy. This new move on behalf of New Zealand produce is an excellent anvernseinent for the Dominion, and one only hopes that other big concerns, when they became purchasers, will offer the butter for what it really is, so that the actual purchaser shall be aware of the country of origin. This New Zealand farmer, who has been on a comprehensive round of travel, has been much gratified to hear New Zealand butter and cneese spoken so highly of from end to rad of the United Kingdom. This is all to the good, but It la impossible tv shut one’s eyes to the fact that the dairying industry is developing rapidly in different parts of the world, encouraged by the present profitable prices. It is surely good business for the New Zealand dairymen to build up a good sale with the actual retail purchasers of New Zealand butter, bv having it known and branded as such when the retail purchaser receives

Incidentally one might mention the ease of a grocer in Kensington who buys New Zealand butter regularly when he can get it, and sells it for what it is. He ryeighs it out of the box in front of the customer, and ne says he has trebled his sale of butter since he started to sell that irom New Zealand. A GOOD CLASS MEAT TRADE. One of the wholesale purveyors of New Zealand mutton and lamib, too, finds it good business to sell the meat for what it is. With five hundred retail shops, the London Central Meat Company has to offer no mutton or lamb tliat comes elsewhere than from New Zealand. And the salesmen are instructed to sell it with the original

tag” on. too. If any tags are missing an explanation is demanded by the moving spirit of the firm—a man who i? well known in New Zealand, and who, because he has been there, knows what he is offering his customers. He announces in his shops that only New Zealand mutton and lamb are supplied by him. his employees repeat this tact, and New Zealand’s reputation here is thus thoroughly established. The customers supplied are generally of good class and the fact that they appreciate their purchases is evident by the extensive and extending business carried on. Encouragement to butchers to press the sale of New Zealand meat, as against meat from other parts of the world, is, in the estimation of the New Zealand Meat producers’ Board's London representative, the business of New Zealand firms. There is a wide field for bringing very prominently before the great British public the outstanding merits of New Zealand meat as New Zealand.