CHEESE INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 July 1938, Page 4

CHEESE INDUSTRY

“IN A BAD WAY TODAY.” COSTS ON THE INCREASE. “The cheese industry in New Zealand today is in a bad way,” stated Mr A. Linton, a member of the New Zealand Dairy Producers’ Board, at yesterday’s meeting of the Wairarapa Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union. “The difficulty,” he added, “is that Canada is taking up the slack on the British market and her exports are increasing as ours are falling. In the last few years our cheese exports have dropped from 106,000 tons to about 84,000 tons. Of the 217 cheese factories in New Zealand there will not be 212 which will realise a differential payment of 2d over butter.. Difficulties in cheese factories are being accentuated by the Government’s legislation and the rulings of the Arbitration Court. ’Wages and hours of work are having a detrimental effect on the quality of our cheese today. The way things are going it seems likely that a large proportion of our cheese factories, both large and medium, will have to go out of operation.” Mr Linton said it was difficult to make out a case for increased manufacturing costs in butter factories, but there was a definite increase in cheese production. The increase in farm costs was even more pronounced.