N.Z. BUTTER FOR PERU

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28371, 2 September 1957, Page 12

N.Z. BUTTER FOR PERU

Shipment $OOO Miles Up Amazon

A trial order of New Zealand tinned table butter has been sent by the Dairy Products Marketing Commission for shipment 3000 miles up the Amazon river to Peru. The, butter left Auckland in the Port Halifax for New York, where it will be transhipped into a vessel belonging to a shipping line which makes regular voyages to ports up the great South American river. Also in the-Port Halifax is a small shipment of patted New Zealand butter carried in a refrigerated hold and destined for the west coast lowlands of Peru. This will' be transhipped at New York for* delivery to Callao.

The commission last sold butter to Peru five years ago when a shipment of 21 tons was sent to the port of Callao. Peru is divided longitudinally by the Andes mountain chain, and goods delivered to Callao on the western lowland coast destined for the populated eastern part of the country have to be transported by pack animals over the mountain passes and then down the Ucalyali river to Iquitos, the inland river port of east Peru. Direct shipment to east Peru up the Amazon through Brazil is quicker and more convenient. The New- Zealand butter shipment is scheduled to arrive in New York on September 18 and should reach Iquitos in October. New Zealand carries on a small regular trade in tinned table butter, mainly to tropical countries in the Caribbean area and the Pacific. About 45 tons were shipped last season to all destinations. It is shipped as general, not refrigerated cargo.

Another New Market Martinique in the French Antilles in the Caribbean ar£a is the latest new market for New Zealand dairy products. The commission shipped from Auckland in the Port Macquarie a trial order, of four tons of skim milk powder and wholemilk powder to the port of Fort de France. Another important sale made recently is that of 200 tons of cheese to South Africa. Though small quantities of cheese have been exported to the Union from time to time in recent years, this is the first time in 10 years that a sizeable sale of cheese has been made to that country.