DAIRY EXPORTS TO AMERICA

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28150, 13 December 1956, Page 16

DAIRY EXPORTS TO AMERICA

U.S. May Stop Butter Oil Imports PROTEST BY DOMESTIC INTERESTS (New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, December 12. New Zealand exports of butter oil to the United States might be stopped if an investigation now being made decides they may injure United States domestic dairy interests, according to the Dairy Products Marketing Commission. The investigation is being conducted by the United States Tariff Commission.

Butter oil is similar to ghee. Ghee is butter made from Buffalo milk and converted into oil. New Zealand exports butter oil to ghee-consuming countries.

During the last six months, New Zealand has exported about 920 tons of butter oil to the United States. By the end of the Second World War, demand for butter oil had been built up in a number of markets, notably Fiji and Pakistan. Easily the largest market was Pakistan where the commission sold an average of about 500 tons a year. That market was lost after 1952 when the United States began large scale exports of butter oil to Pakistan under foreign aid programmes and the only significant market left to New Zealand was Fiji where sales now average about 250 tons a year. Shipments of butter oil to the United States, where it is used in the manufacture of foods, including ice cream, began last June. Now dairy interests in America have protested at the importation of the product.