DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27666, 24 May 1955, Page 14

DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING

REASONS FOR LOWER PRICES LEVEL OF BRITISH STOCKS AND PRODUCTION This year’s conference was a milestone in the history of the industry, said the chairman of the annual conference of dairy company representatives in the southern ward (Mr J. McKenzie, of Southland), yesterday. For the first time in 15 years the conference was being held in a time of free marketing. “I think it is far too soon to be pessimistic about cheese prospects. The British Ministry of Food’s large carry-over has been a big factor in the present low prices,” said Mr McKenzie. The one-day conference was attended by 31 representatives of dairy companies operating on the West Coast and in North, Mid and South Canterbury. The deputy-chairman of the board (Mr A. Linton) said that at the moment New Zealand was losing about £5O a ton on cheese sold in

Britain. “But whether these prices will continue for the rest of the season neither I nor Mr W. G. MacArtney nor anyone else in the dairy industry can say.” Apart from the Ministry of Food stocks mentioned by Mr McKenzie there was another factor —the increased production of cheese in Britain—which was affecting the prices of New Zealand cheese in Britain, said Mr Linton. British production of cheese had been increased in the last season from a normal output of 40,000 to 50,000 tons to 90,000 tons.

A lot had been said recently about the quality of New cheese and butter, but he did not believe this was a factor contributing to the present low prices for these products, said Mr Linton. “I have seen Australian and British cheese, and on the average, the quality of our product is not nearly as bad as it has been said to be.”