British Butter Sales Grow With Lower Prices

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28536, 15 March 1958, Page 13

British Butter Sales Grow With Lower Prices

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, March 14. Discussing New Zealand hnd British applications for an antidumping duty on butter, the “Financial Times” said: “Though there is a considerable difference between home market prices of butter in Finland, Eire, Sweden and Austria, and the prices at which butter is exported to the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom proves to be the only market in which butter can be sold without quota restrictions tad in which prices can move freely. So a divergence between home and export prices could be expected on these grounds alone “It is not only in countries mentioned in applications for antidumping duty that there is a difference between the export price and the domestic price. On January 30 for example. Australian butter of the same quality was Quoted at 373 s 4d a cwt in Sydney tad 249 s on the London provision exchange. “Butter consumption seems, however, to have been stimulated

by lower prices. Last year, when most butter prices fell by 14 per cent, consumption increased by 14 per cent. “Though butter consumption in the United Kingdom reached 17.31 b a head last year it was still 28 per cent, below the pre-war level," said the “Financial Times.” While the consumption of butter was rising, that of margarine was falling—it fell by more than 8 per cent, to 15.61 b a head last year—but was still nearly double that it was before the war. “It seems, therefore, that the increase in the price of butter may turn consumers to margarine again,” said the newspaper. “At present, some types of butter are cheaper than the most expensive types of margarine and this appears to have more than offset the effect of heavy advertising by the margarine industry “Last year, margarine’ producers spent nearly £l|m on ppress and television advertising, or more than three times as much as was spent on advertising butter.”