DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 251, 23 October 1928, Page 4

DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETS.

CONDITIONS IN BRITAIN

LONDON MERCHANTS' VIEWS

£ A visitor to New Zealand at the present time;* Mr. A. G. Rowson, one of the leading merchants in Tooley Street, London,, for whom Messrs. Leonard and Son, of Anzac . Avenue, are the New Zealand agents. Discussing matters of interest to the dairy industry with a "Star" representative, Mr. Rowson.spoke hopefully of •the future. He. said it appeared to him that it would be a long time before New Zealand dairymen could possibly make a quantity of butter that would be in excess of the consumptive demand at a good level of prices.

One feature in this connection was (Been in the fact that the shipment of Canadian butter to Great Britain had fallen away to nothing, and the big Dominion was now importing increasing quantities from New Zealand. Moreover, the shortage of butter stocks in America suggested that that country would require considerable supplies of New Zealand butter during the coming winter. In both oases the quantities dealt with would be at the expense of supplies to Great Britain. Industrial affairs at Home were gradually settling down and strikes appeared (for the time being at all events) to be a thing of the past; so that there should be money available for the purchase of high clan food stuffs. Regulating Markets. A good deal has been heard, said Air. Rowson, about the desire of New Zealand dairy farmers to secure an even market, and attempts had been made to avoid fluctuations by stretching out shipments of produce in an endeavour to regulate values. All these attempts, said the visitor, could only be regarded as artificial interference with the laws of supply and demand; which inevitably caused fluctuation in price. The butter supply, of which only a portion came from New Zealand, varied daily, and on t'he other hand the demand also fluctuated, and it could be fcaid, all the world over, that the marketing conditions of butteT and cheese were never the same for two days running. Price, emphatically declared the Londoner, was the only medium which exactly reconciled the demand with the supply, and it was, therefore, obvious that the price must vary, and any attempt to fix an even price for a long period would probably result in a lower average return than would otherwise be obtained. Bvyfnfl Combinations. Asked what the effect of buying combinations recently effected in Britain had upon the marketing position, Mr. Rowson said that while it was true there had been amalgamations of buying interests in great Britain, it must also be recognised that there had been expansion of trade' and fresh buyers had come in. Moreover, it did not inevitably follow that increased buying power caused these large Concerns to go direct to the source of production, but on the contrary there was evidence that they preferred to buy from . available stocks in England, and to pay the market price ruling at the time. There was no evidence of any combination whatever amongst these concern# to buy at the same time or to regulate their mutual actions so as to prejudice the producer!' interests ih the butter market. Competition was just as keen among the biggest firms to buy at the time when, according to their • judgment, c&nditions Were most favourable, and one frequently found one of the largest firm's, operating freely and securing euppli,es whilst others were restricting their orders to the needs of' the moment. It Wa® not a fact, as was sometimes suggested, that these firms pooled -their interests so as to take advantage of producers.