MARKET FOR DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1922, Page 4

MARKET FOR DAIRY PRODUCE.

Tlie sale of 190,000 boxes of New Zealand Ibutter in the United States, as mentioned in a recent cable message, is an event of great interest and importance to local 'producers. The amount involved is about five thousand tons, or about a tenth of the season’s exportable supply. The sale comes at a very opportune time, for butter had been flooding the London markets reducing prices somewhat, and the moie butter that can be devoted to other markets the better for the New Zealand producers. The danger of relying on the English markets alone was exemplified in January of the present year. Many leaders in tlie industry; sensible of this, have for some time past been advocating the investigation and exploitation of other possible outlets, particularly in the United States and Canada, which are unable, owing to the great increase in their populations, to provide sufficient butter and cheese for their own requirements. Besides, they are unable—at any rate in respect of butter —to turn out an article as good as that produced in New Zealand. The difficulty with the United States has been the increase in the tariff on butter, which now amounts to nearly fourpence per pound. It is a substantial impost that can only be met in times of great shortage, as is at present the case; but there are indications that the buying public will not put up much longer with the heavy duties on foodstuffs and wool imposed by the Republicans at the instance of the United States’ producers, so that a good market may be found there for our butter and cheese in the near future. As it is the distribution of the 190,000 boxes will do an immense amount of good, enabling the Americans to guage the quality of our produce, and show them tdie fatuity of imposing restrictive duties upon such a necessary article as butter. In the States there is, of course, a considerable section who, having ample means, are not concerned with prices so long as they can secure the quality, and to them the extra fourpence is a matter of no consequence. That New Zealand butter will appeal to them goes without saying, for in San Francisco, where it has been on the market for years, it is regarded as the best procurable, and infinitely superior to the local article, which is not surprising seeing that New Zealand butter is produced from cows fed with Natures own food, grass, whereas in .America it is largely produced from stall and artificially fed animals.