DAIRY PRODUCE PRICE WAR

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27470, 2 October 1954, Page 7

DAIRY PRODUCE PRICE WAR

BUTTER AND CHEESE IN BRITAIN

LONDON, Sept. 30. New Zealand, Danish, and Australian butter and cheese producers tomorrow will enter a new phase of a price war in the British market. The Ministry of Food will relinquish all control over the purchase and distribution of home-produced butter and cheese as from tomorrow. Then licensed British producers will be free to sell their dairy products where and when they choose—for the first time in 15 years. This return to a free market is expected to precipitate a new fall in prices which will affect, in turn, the prices paid to overseas suppliers. Prices have been falling steadily in the last three months after an early increase which followed the ending of butter rationing last May. Top quality butter, which was selling for 4s 2d per lb in May and June, is now selling in many centres for 3s 6d. The London representatives of the New Zealand, Danish, and Australian producers who, in that order, supply more than 95 per cent, of Britain’s butter imports, are anxiously studying the situation today.

New Zealand producers will be the first to be hit by any steady fall in British prices, as they are now selling their butter and cheese through private channels. Denmark and Australia still sell to Britain under contracts negotiated with the Ministry of Food. They will also be affected ultimately by any big drop in the produce markets.