BUTTER PRICES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18486, 14 September 1925, Page 3

BUTTER PRICES.

"SOME EXTRAORDINARY VARIATIONS." N.Z. AND RIVALS. Tho prices obtained abroad' for Dominion butter and cheese- aio compared with those obtained for foreign and rival produce, in the annual report of tho New Zealand Dairy Produce Control Board. The ropcrt states: "Comparisons of the High Commissioner's, cabled prices for the year disclose the eamc extraordinary variation in price between the New Zealand and Danish butter that has been experienced in several preceding years. Taking the figures ae stand fcr the year,' tho average difference in price was between 26s and 275. It varied from 3s on September 6th, 1924, to 58a on February 7th and March 14th, 1925. Early in September some brands of New Zealand were actually quoted higher than Danish. It must also be borne in mind that the average difference is really greater than this summary of tho cabled quotations discloses, as the volume of our supplies were much pieater whon there was the greatest disparity '.,etween tho market prices. "Tho butter market has been subject to several extraordinary fluctuation* since Christmas, falling from 204s on December 20th, to 1563 on January 17th. It is understood that it fell over 20s in three days. This decline in the middle of the British winter, extraordinary as it may seem, proved to be its lowest point. The highest point was' touched dnring the. concluding weeks of October last, when 228s was reached. "Cheese prices have kept remarkably stable throughout the year. Moving on a gradually aecending scale during the past few months, the market reached its highest point recently at 110b. Canadian Cheese. "A comparison of New Zealand and Canadian cheese prices during the past two years should pjftvide food for reflection. We recognise a pcssible measure of unreliability in these comparieons, seeing that for some periods, such as March, April and May, 3924, no Canadian figures were available. But as far as figures are available, and only making comparisons over the periods when, both were quoted, they indicated that fw tie ioason 1923-1924 New Zealand coloured cheese avcragely secured a premium of more than 5s per cwt over coloured Canadian, vihile. the premium paid for New Zealand white was over 3s. "Tb° figures for 1924-1925 indicate that the tables have been turned, Canada, securing averagely a premium of 3d per cwt for coloured, and a premium of 2s 5d for white, lhis should prompt the eerioue question with cheese makers. Has our standard of quality been maintained? The Canadia.-i Da'iy Oommwstoner, Mr Buddick, provided a pessible explanation for this altered position when speaking recently of the Kr*ft processed cheese. He eaid that its development was the beet thing that had happened in the trade tor years, as it meant the openin" of =ew markets for Canadian cheese, and within recent months had added several cents to tneir market price."