CHEESE FOR BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23324, 9 May 1941, Page 10

CHEESE FOR BRITAIN

160,000 TONS NEXT SEASON ADJUSTMENTS IN DAIRY INDUSTRY NECESSARY (P.A.) WELLINGTON. May 8. The Minister for Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) announced to-day that advice had been received that the Ministry of Food in Britain is prepared to make a contract with the New Zealand Government to take 160,000 tons of cheese in the 1941-42 production season. The production of such a large quantity meant considerable reorganisation within the dairy industry, said the Minister. He was sure that dairy farmers would again rise to the occasion. While emphasising that their paramount desire was for the production of cheese, he mentioned that the Ministry of Food also desired the maximum production of dried milk from New Zealand. Therefore, the changeover in plans would have to take that further factor into account. A PROBLEM FOR FACTORIES CHANGING TO CHEESE PRODUCTION LONG PREPARATION NECESSARY (P.S.S.) DUNEDIN, May 8. ■ “It would be an utterly impossible task without lengthy preparation, to divert ,to cheese production any substantial portion of the milk supply required to produce 130,000 tons of butter, which will be about the total quantity graded for export this season," states the annual report of the South Island .Dairy Association, to be presented to the annual conference next month. “When it is considered that the value of our butter exports for the last year was approximately £18,000,000, it will be appreciated that a most difficult problem will be created by the restriction of exports, a problem which will seriously affect not only the dairy industry, but the welfare of the whole Dominion," says the report. “The restriction of meat exports will, of course, make the problem a more difficult one still. “So far as butter is concerned, it seems that there is not a great deal the industry can do to meet the position satisfactorily. The policy which was followed this season of diverting a portion" of the milk supply from butter to cheese production, with the object of securing the additional supply of cheese asked for by the British Ministry of Food, could no doubt be further extended;, but there are labour and other obstacles which would place a strict limit on what could be achieved in that direction. “It will not be possible,” the report concludes, "for the dairy industry to bear the huge loss which must be entailed if butter exports are restricted, arid the view the association takes is that the Government must take measures to ensure that whatever sacrifices have to be accepted are shared equally by all sections of the people.” FOOD VALUE OF CHEESE CHANGEOVER FROM \ BUTTER DOMINION’S EXPORT SITUATION Because of its high nutritive value and the relatively lesser shipping space taken compared with other foodstuffs, cheese was given a high place in the war-time order of precedence for imported foodstuffs by the British Ministry of Food. That, simply, is the answer to those who ask why cheese has precedence over butter and meat exports from New Zealand to Great Britain. The-total export for the season ended July 31, 1940, was 1,349,370 crates, or 96.383 tons, representing an increase qf 18.2 per cent., and to dairy farmers in .the Dominion appeals have been made .to increase cheese production lor English consumption. For the first seven’ months of this year, 62,877 tons were exported, against 50,414 tons last' year, ‘ according to figures compiled from the “Abstract of Statistics. "My worst problem,” was what Lord Woolton (Minister for Food) said of the cheese supply in England in Febru-aryr-Supplies were so short then that, if cheese had to be rationed,-a cube Of one square inch a week would be issued to each person; but many did hot need even that minute quantity of cheese-weekly. No difficulty is expected ih finding a market in Great Britain during the war for as much chfeesh as New Zealand can produce, for besides the demand for it as a fried, approximately 16,500 tons from European sources have been lost. , Pre-war quantities available annually to Home consumers were approximately 200,000 tons, of which onequarter was Home produced, the balance coming mainly from New Zealand: and Canada, with Australia and 1 the Netherlands supplying lesser quantities. Cheese is now sold in Britain without regard to country of origin, the reduction:,of the price of Home produced cheese to the level applying to imported cheese operating from October last. , t While the British Government has made a bhlk purchase of New Zealand'# exportable, cheese surpluses, the contlhuiance'of hbrmal supplies from the Dominion to the small markets in ether countries is provided for. “Small" is a correct description of the cheese trade to countries other than Britain,’for only 1353 crates were shipped in, the 1939-40 season —60 to China, 127 to India, and 1166 to Canada. , Quantity Almost Doubles ; The first war-time contract made between the British and. New Zealand Governments was for the supply of 84,000 tons of cheese in the 1939-40 season;' commencing with • arrivals after November 20, 1939. The maximum retail price to the British consumers is Is Id a lb or 121s 4d a cwt. The contract pried for [finest and first grade cheese, frofr. New Zealand, is 64s 3d per qwL and charges are estimated to bring ex store purchase price to wholesalers to 93s 2d per cwt - t Though margarine has made .inroads into Newi Zealand’s butter market at Home, the British Government has stated that there is no intention to influence the post-war situation to the detriment of. butter producers in the Dominion, and the Hon. W. Nash has iaid, “it: is likely that the post-war demand for butter will be largely influenced by the selling price compared with that of margarine, by considerations of • the relative nutritive value of the two products and by the export pi- importations of butter , from Continental sources:" Before the war, about 515,000- tons of butter were available annually to. consumers, or Boz a person- a week; Pre-war consumption of margarine was slightly more than 3oz a week. European importations of butter totalled 230,000 tons, and these have beep diverted from the English market Approximately 250,000 tons were supplied from New Zealand, Australia, Eire, Argentine, and South: Africa. To provide fat .the contingency-which has artseh-‘in Vecent months—that supplies- of butter from. New Zealand, and the -British ~(&yertimeht v tofrddiifc|s.:;butter rationing, .notwithstanding stocks being 1 then at a record high level, and, so" that in all circumstances the necessary fats would be available to the people; arranged the purchase of large

quantities of raw materials for margarine. A sharp increase in sales of margarine and a corresponding decline in butter sales followed the rationing of butter and its sale from Is 4d to Is 7d per lb, while margarine was retailing at 5d to 9d per lb. The latest announcement of a contract to take 160,000 tons of cheese means a further change-over from butter to cheese production. The dairying industry is of greater importance to the North Island than the South Island, as a study of the export fijgures for the last season will show. The North Island’s percentage of exports of butter was 98.12 and of cheese 83.430. Shipments of butter and cheese from South Island ports in the 1939-40 season represented the following percentages of the Dominion’s exports:— Lyttelton: Butter, 1.04 per cent: cheese, .66. Timaru: Butter .45, cheese .76. Dunedin: Butter .17, cheese 1.93. Bluff: Butter .22, cheese 13.22. Processed Milk “Normal New Zealand supplies” was stipulated a year ago as the quantity of processed milk which Britain would take. The maximum production is now to be taken and exportations on private account will doubtless be excluded, all supplies going to the Ministry for Food. Before the war, importations to Britain, were regulated to assist the reorganisation of the British milk industry and on the grounds that the limitation of imports was essential to the maintenance and development of the industry. The New Zealand quotas for the year before the war totalled 157,000cwt, made up as follows:—Condensed whole milk, 30,000cwt; milk powder, 115,000cwt; buttermilk and whey powder, 12,000cwt. Just before the war broke out, the restrictions were suspended, and, as a consequence, exports from New Zealand proceeded normally. The exports last year were: Dried milk, 140,799 cwi (valued at £266,000), against 162,328cwt (valued at £261,900) in, 1939; preserved and condensed milk and cream, 69,197c«rt (valued at,£153,183), against 58.830cwt (£115,526) in 1939.