MORE BUTTER EATEN

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28793, 14 January 1959, Page 8

MORE BUTTER EATEN

15 p.c. Rise In U.K. (From the London Correspondent ot "The Press-1 LONDON, January 5. Butter consumption appears to have increased in Britain in the last year by some 15 per cent, on 1957. At the same time, the apparent consumption of margarine declined by almost 10 per cent., if the figures for the first nine months of 1958 give a fair picture oj the whole year. By the end of the year the improved price for butter indicated the relative shortage on the British market; but the current prices, suggest a levelling off in the steady rise over the last three months. This may be the result, to some extent, of good stocks being held by merchants. For it is almost certain that some weeks ago. when prices were still low and when the marketing boards were making their usual releases of butter throughout the country, some merchants stocked up at the low figure. The demand then for cheap New Zealand butter to be sold later at a better price must be related with the greater demand for butter by the housewife when considering the complaints towards the end of the year that the releases of butter by the New Zealand Dairy Products Marketing Commission were insufficient in some areas. Appeals for more butter when the price was rising were partly the result of a genuine improvement in sales and partly the desire by merchants to improve their stocks on a rising market. This week’s “Grocer" published a table showing that apparent consumption of butter in the first 10 months of 1958 rose by nearly I.lm cwt. Consumption of margarine appears to have declined by about 500,000 cwt. Home production of butter was the same as that in 1957, but imports for the first part of the year were higher by more than 11 million cwt Stocks in that period increased considerably last year. In 1957 they were reduced. British manufacturers made much less margarine last year, and imports were reduced to a trickle. The result was that the margarine available for home consumption was 4,806,000 cwt in the first nine months of the year, or 530,000 cwt less than in the same months of 1957.