BUTTER PRICES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 8

BUTTER PRICES

EARLY AUTUMN RISE 140/- OR 130/- PEAK ? (MOM OU* OW* CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON. July 6. The general assumption being that the price of butter will rise in England towards the autumn, many people in and out of Tooley street are now endeavouring to forecast what the peak will be. One estimate is that 140s will be realised before the end of July; another is that little more than 130s is nearer the mark, since recent indications are that supplies will be coming forward in bigger quantities than was at first anticipated. (The current price in England is 124s unsalted and 122s salted.) A factor to be taken into consideration is Russia’s intentions. Butter has been consumed in Russia this year and exports to England have been comparatively small. It is anticipated that shipments from Russia during the autumn would steady the price; whether those shipments will be made is uncertain. In the meantime speculators are keeping the price of New Zealand and Australian butter round about 120s per cwt. On the first indication that it is falling below that figure there has been steady buying in view of the expected autumn rise. It is reported by the Imperial Economic Committee that the butter production in Europe remained at an unusually high level during June, but to a less extent than in earlier months this year. Shipments from most of the chief exporting countries were heavier than a year earlier,- the increase in the case of Denmark amounting to 7 per cent. Imports into the United Kingdom from European countries have been, in the aggregate, little different from those of a year ago as a great part of the heavier exports from Northern European countries has been directed towards Germany, which in recent weeks has been taking from these sources considerably more than last year. Production conditions in Germany, on account of dry weather and foot-and-mouth disease, have been rather unfavourable and imports are likely to continue for the present well above last year’s level. Conditions in Continental countries generally are greatly improved from those of a few weeks ago, but in several areas the harmful effects of the preceding weeks of drought may not have been wholly overcome. Production in* Great Britain also has been affected by the dry conditions prevailing until recently, and the total output in England and Wales in May was 11 per cent, less than a year earlier.