THE BUTTER MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 4

THE BUTTER MARKET.

PRICE ADVANCED ONE PENNY.

As indicated in an article in the issue of the "Auckland Star" last Monday, the retail price of butt3r has now been advanced one penny per pmmd all round, to bring this market nearer a parity with rates ruling in London at the present time. From this morninthe wholesale price for butter in Auckland, net, will be as follows until further notice:—Superfine, 1/8} per lb: first grade, 1/8; second grado, 1/7. Following on this the retail price of butter has also bee« raised one penny per pound from to-day. Auckland consumers are still getting an advantage, as at the latest market quotation in London superfine butter is worth equivalent to 1/8J per lb f.o.b. in Now Zealand, and from the outlook at the present time it would seem that a further increase in the price of butter on the local market is by ao means improbable. Speculators at this end watching the London market are quick to take advantage of the fact that the price here is under parity, and as a result a lot of butter has changed hands in anticipation of the present advance, which means a penny per wund profit to the buyer. When the f.o.b. price here for export to London is 1/81 per lb it should be remembered that cost of making into pats and distributing for local consumption adds at least another penny per lb to the price to the users at this end. The butter exported is sent in cwt boxes, and only one account has to be collected' for a large quantity, whereas when rj'stributed around the shqis for retail sale there are naturally quite a lot of accounts to be kept.