BUTTER SALES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 243, 13 October 1936, Page 14

BUTTER SALES.

DOMINION MARKET.

PRICES NOT YET FIXED.

PROTECTION OF PRODUCERS. 11 (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) '1 WELLINGTON, Monday. On the eve of his departure for Engs land, the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, yesterday announced the 11 decision of the Government to withhold a for the time being the general application of a local marketing scheme for dairy products. He added that regula--2 lions might be issued to 2>rotect the interests of the producers for the local market, and he also expressed the desire ' r of the Government for the elimination f of some of the competitive practices 1 which have disturbed the market in the past. "At present," said the Minister, "the r prices at which butter is sold by dairy ! factory companies for local consumption . bear a more or less definite relation to i the prices paid by the Government for i butter intended for export. The retail ■ prices vary somewhat from town to i town, but in each town competition among retailers keeps prices on a reasonably uniform level. "Lower retail prices in a particular city or town in the majority of cases are due to the fact that a dairy factory company, or companies, have factories in or near that city or town and are able to maintain their own distribution services to retailers at a low cost. In cities and towns in which distribution is handled by mercantile firms the cost of the necessary services is somewhat greater. Last Season's Stocks. "At the commencement of the present dairying season, which coincided with the inception of the system of Government purchase of butter intended for export, there was a considerable quantity of last season's butter in store. This butter was not subject to the provisions of the Primary Produce Marketing Act. It was thought that it would be desirable to avoid possible complications, and for that reason to refrain from regulating prices on the local market until these stocks had been exhausted. "The butter remaining from last season has now been disposed of, but no unanimity exists in the industry as to the level at which local prices of butter could, or should, be fixed, or, indeed, whether any fixation is desirable. If the Government were to regulate local prices of butter it would be bound by the provisions of the Act to fix them at such levels as to assure to producers a net return equivalent to the return derivable from the sale to the Government of similar butter intended for export. "No General Agreement." "Owing, to some extent at least, to varying circumstances in different localities, there is, in so far as distributors and retailers are concerned, no general agreement as to what constitutes a fair and reasonable remuneration for their services in handling the butter after it has been acquired from the dairy factory companies. "The Government accordingly has decided to take no action at present in the direction of regulating prices of butter on the local market, except in so far as it may be necessary in the interests of producers to provide by regulations that no dairy factory company shall sell butter at a price that, after all due allowance has been made for savings • in storage and other costs, will produce a net return lower than that obtainable from the sale to the Government of similar butter for export. "If, at a later date," said Mr. Nash, "experience suggests that a more complete control of the organisation of sales on the local market is necessary to ensure export parity for the producer and a reasonable price to the consumer, 1 the necessary steps will be taken. In the meantime the Government desires all those engaged in distribution to eliminate some of the competitive practices which have, in the past, resulted in sales under cost, and elements of uneconomic and chaotic conditions which are of no advantage either to the producer or the consumer."