DAIRY PRODUCE TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 205, 27 August 1912, Page 2

DAIRY PRODUCE TRADE.

remarkable YEAR REVIEWED. MESSRS. WEDDEL'S VIEWS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, July 27. Messrs. Weddel, the well-known firm of produce agents and importers, have it-end to-day their animal review of the imported butter and cheese trade of the Lulled Kingdom. Aa the compiler remarks, the twelve mouths from the end ill .lun-e, 1911, to the end of the eorre-.-jh.iiiling month in the present year of grace has been one of most remarkable ill the history of Uic importation of dairy produce into the United Kingdom. The most extraordinary feature was the high price of both butter and cheese home made and imported. It is necessary to go back to the years 1870 and jH77 to find anything to parallel the figures of the past year. The summer of 1011 will 'be long remembered as one of the hottest and driest Known, and the area over which these -conditions prevailed was unprecedented!} , extensive. Practically -the -whole of the pastoral countries of the Northern Hemisphere from which the United Kingdom has drawn for years its supplies of butter and cheese were in-eluded. Under such exceptional cirouaiietances as these a great departure from the ordinary conditions of trade was inevitable. . Fortunately, the great export trade in ilwtter which has grown up in Australia and New Ze-dand enabled those countries to onusliorate and redress, to some extent, the natural calamity which afflicted European countries, and brought the ■year of greatest prosperity ever known to the dairy industry of Australia and iNew Zealand. But, say .Messrs. Weddel:— "Owing, (however, to the impossibility of Australian and New Zealand dairy furmers being able to appreciate to the full extent the consequences which were bound to follow these very -unusual conditions, many of them missed one of the grandest opportunities of their lives. '.They could not be persuaded to consign i£heir butter and cheese, but were tempt ed by thp high prices offered in August ami September last to sell out and out. There never was a time in which all the circumstances connected with dairying pointed more emphatically and with more certainty to excessively high prices ifor butter and cheese than at the close of the European summer of 1911- It 'was an opportunity that is not likely ito occur again for a life-time." PRATSR 'FOR NEW ZEAIiAND BUTTER .VAKKRA Am regards quality, Messrs. Weddel remarked that the process of pasteurisation has been more perfected and more (widely applied in New Zealand, and the general result (has been a further all-round improvement in quality. This improvement is specifically noticeable in the texture and keeping properties of butter. The. peculiar flavour of cowinesa" has been very largely reduced, and in certain .factories altogether removed. ■ "Fishiness" during the past season has been (practically absent, and, according to Messrs. Weddel, during the past season the quality of New Zealand butter has been the best ever known.-: As an illustration of this great improvement, there may be noted the large increase in the successful manufacture of butter "without salt and without any other preservative" for consumption on the Continent of "Europe. Among many authorities there was considerable doubt as to the practicability of this trade being catered for on an extended scale; but experience has proved that, with the greater care now used in the treatment of cream, it. is possible to ship to .Europe with success New Zealand and Australian butter prepared without preservatives. It is estimated that some 23,000 tons of Australasian butter, prepared without the use of salt or preservative, went to the Continent. Most of this butter was made in New Zealand, and to have manufactured successfully on bo large a scale, with comparatively so little practical experience, is an achievement of which New Zealand buttermakers may well be proud. Australian butter has not given to Continental buyers of finest butter the same complete satisfaction as parcels from New Zealand. CHEESE. The outstanding feature of the cheese trade during the p.ist year was t'ue same as that of butter,, via, the extraordinarily high prices which prevailed for the greater part of the twelve months. During the past fifty years-, there have been occasional short periods of very high prices, mostly caused by temporary scarcity of supplies or by panics, but it is very difficult .to find '.a ; parallel . to the long spell of.high values, which has not yet come to an end. Although butter at the present time is back to the level of a year ago, cheese is fully 5/ a cwt. above its 1911 level. The Dominion imports of cheese arc not following the same lines as the Dominion imports of butter, which in the past ten years has been ■ more than doubled. The real cause of the decline in imported Dominion cheese is somewhat paradoxical, for it is due to the progress and prosperity of one of these Dominions, viz., Canada. That country is increasing in population- so rapidly that it cannot keep up the supply of cheese to its home population, and at the same time con tinue its export to the United Kingdom. Tins development in Canada is bringing prosperity to the Dominion of New Zealand, which is preparing to take over the business which Canada year by year is less and less able to carry on. In the past ten years Canadian imports have fallen off by 15,000 tons, while New Zealand imports have increased to the extent of 22,000 tons. The statements made that Canada will cease to export by the year 1916 may have some foundation, in view of the enormous rate of increase in her population, mostly by immigration, and Messrs. Weddel counsel New Zealand makers to prepare for probable developments in Canada. QUALITY. Messrs. Weddel state that New Zealand cheese, during the past season, has shown a marked improvement in quality. The flavour is year by year becoming more free from all defects, and some of it is rapidly approaching the very best Canadian. More of it is arriving clean | in flavour, and " meaty" in texture. The white cheese is losing Unit yellow tinge which made it neither white nor coloured, am' the red is becoming deeper and truer | in colour. Methods of transit by stsamor I Mill ml! for improvement; several sur- I revs linvc proved tn-.t. for some cause. I not nlv.fiys traceable on its "arrival, the cii..'< M- sticks to the ccntroWrd of the n::tc. "I'm. who i rp-::ovc.l, patches of soft ,mcl wet <■!'. '.-'■.■> "re left adhering Pi!! I-TECTS ron NEXT SEASON. l;>fUrv.— i-.-cr-itiivciy hot and dry C".:h. :• of hr. s';:nr,"*r U'h r.a a i,.,.. ... : , irrcti. "icduciioii in the riumbi.r vi iiilkh cows bo*Q. in the United

Kingdom -end" in the , - butter exporting cojon-tries of Europe. It is estimated <thait the reduction ' will be over 100,000 cows in the United Kingdom, and, from the same cause, a similar proportionate reduction in Europe. Exceedingly little fodder is left in this country from last year, and. the • production of liay this year is ifchns far only about three-. I fourtta of - a good average crop. Under these conditions the make of batter in Europe and in this country cannot be so much as in a normal year, though, doubtless, it ■will be uracil in excess of the twelve months just ended. From Australia, shipments are expected to be about the same as this year; Queensland . and New South Wales may &hip more, but Victoria will probably show some reduction; New Zealand, it is estimated, will ship less than" in. the past year. In America, the production to date is more than, while, in Canada less than, and in Siberia about the same as, that of last year. Cheese..—The make of cheese in the United Kingdom to date is much, beyond that of 1911, but not above the average of other years. It is, however, being pressed for sale more than usual because of the high prices obtainable since the season ibegan; consequently, if the ma-ke be normal, stocks for winter consumption.will be les3 than usual. In Canada the. make for May and June is about 10 per cent less than in- 1911, owing- partly ito the spring being late. In New Zealand, during the coming seaeon, 'many butter factories propose to make cheese, which will necessarily tend to increase the export from that source. Notwithstanding the large increase in ilhe consumption of margarine and the many strikes that have arisen in tie past year, it is anticipated "that the de maud for butter and cheese will be well maintained during the coming season. Trade in general and employment in all industries show no signs of retiring from their present strong positions. Amid so many conflicting conditions it is difficult to make any reliable forecast, ibut a survey of the -world's position of buttcf and cheese leads Messrs. Weddel to the conclusion that prices of both articles will be much below those of 1911-12, but above the average of the preceding years.