BUTTER IN STORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19485, 15 November 1926, Page 11

BUTTER IN STORE.

ADVICE TO RELEASE STOCKS. A SUGGESTION FROM LONDON. MARKET CONTINUES QUIET* A recommendation to all dairy factories holding butter in store in London to release their stocks is made in a cablegram from Messrs. Andrew Clement and Sons to their Auckland agents, Norden and Company, Limited. The cablegram says that business is stagnant and that buyers are resenting price fixing, the position adversely affecting all interests. Messrs. Armour and Company, Limited, have advised their agents, Messrs. Alien and Findlay, under date London, November 12, that stocks of free butter are quoted at 138s to 144s per cwt. and that the market is quiet. The controlled price of New Zealand butter is from 148s to 150s, but, the message says, there is practically no business. An idea of the losses sustained by the dairy companies which held stocks in London this year in anticipation of an end of the season appreciation in values, is furnished by the experience of an Auckland company which recently disposed of a small parcel of 85 boxes of butter. This butter was shipped to England by the steamer Devon, which arrived in London on January 20 and completed discharge on January 30. The market on January 28 was reported to be firm with an upward tendency and New Zealand salted butter was being quoted at 1765, equal to Is 4.93 d per lb., f.o.b. Instructions to hold the butter in store were sent to London, and eventually the shipment was sold at the end of September for 160s per c.wt., the equivalent of Is 3.29 d per lb., f.o.b.

In addition to the loss of 16s per cwt. caused by the market fluctuations between the date of arrival and tho date of sale, the company has also had to meet storage charges, extra fire insurance costs, and interest on its advance for 251 days at 6 per cent., the total of these extra charges being £4l Is 9d, or approximately 19s per cwt. Without taking into account tho ordinary return charges of l-89d lb., the net return to the company on this shipment is therefore 141s per cwt., the gross loss being 35s per cwt.