BRITISH CHEESE MARKET.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 143, 18 June 1926, Page 10

BRITISH CHEESE MARKET.

CANADIANS HAVE ADVANTAGE

OVER NEW ZEALAND EXPORTERS

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

VANCOUVER, May 18.

The Canadian cheese producer and exporter enjoys an advantage over his New Zealand competitor in the British market, according to a report just issued in Ottawa by Mr. J. F. Singleton, chief of the dairy markets and cold storage division of the Canadian' Dominion Government. Mr. Singleton has been engaged recently in a study of the comparative costs of the Canadian and NewZealand producer for producing and landing cheese in the British market.

The costs of manufacturing and marketing Canadian cheese are 14.5 per cent of the selling value less than similar costs in New Zealand, according to his investigations. The total costs of manufacturing cheese in Canada and placing it in the London importer's warehouse exclusive of profits to the Canadian exporter is calculated to be 4.06 cents a pound, or roughly slightly over 2d. The cost of manufacturing the cheese of .about 2.25 cents, or a fraction over a penny, which leaves a net cost for exporting the cheese exclusive o' profit to the exporter of 1.81 cents.

The investigator states that "the Canadian producer obtains 8.3.3 per cent o' the London quotation, and the difference between the calculated net price to the producer, and the average London quotation is 3.8 cents a pound. Since the actual costs of producing and handling the cheese is 4.6 cents, the difference of 1.8 cents is concluded to represent a net loss to the Canadian exporter. It is a fact that 1925 was not a profitable year for cheese exporters, but the loss may not have been as great as indicated above, from the fact that the London quotation upon which the calculation is based is tV. average of the maximum and minimum quotations and our (Canadian) cheese on the whole, probably realised more money in the United Kingdom than would be indicated by the above quotations."

Mr. Singleton suggests, however, in view of the above deductions that "the Canadian cheese producer has in the port of Montreal the greatest competitive primary cheese marked in the world, as competition frequently forces prices on country boards and Montreal auctions to points considerably above what is warranted by London values at the time.

"It is apparent that there is sufficient competition to protect the producer in selling, and while some years are profitable to exporters and some are not, over a term of years the profits secured by the exporters are not excessive.

"We have nothing to gain by discarding the present system of handling the export cheese trade in favour of a consignment system.

"The average London quotation for Canadian cheese has, during the past two seasons, exceeded that of New Zealand cheese by more than one-half cent per pound of cheese."

The position of the Canadian producer over that of the New Zealander is made still more enviable by the fact disclosed in the report that the Canadian producer "received 83.3 cents from every dollar's worth of cheese at the London quotation, whereas, the x New Zealand producer received only 68.7 cents. It should be very encouraging to the Canadian farmer to know that notwithstanding the fact that 42 New Zealand factories had an average make of about seven time*-, the volume of the average Canadian factory, the Canadian farmer received 14.59 dollars more out of each 100 dollars selling value of his cheese than does the New Zealand farmer." The report is based on 'figures secured during the 1925 shipping season.