SALE OF NZ BUTTER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29234, 18 June 1960, Page 12

SALE OF NZ BUTTER

“Unfair Market In U.K.”

(From Our Own Reporter) HAMILTON, June 17. Emphasising that he was expressing his own views, Mr H. H. Innes, a director of the Bank of New Zealand, told the Ruakura farmers’ conference yesterday thai the British market for dairy produce was an unfair market. It could never be expected that on average it would return a fair and reasonable price to the average producer. It was, he said, being dominated more and more by countries. Australia included, to which costs of production ’bore no relation to overseas market returns. This was for the sale of their surplus production, which meant cheap food for the British people. It was a feature of the British market that only manifested itself in good climatic conditions in the countries concerned.

It was possible to the extent that once a country had developed a large industrial Sector it could afford to keep a glasshouse agricultural economy going. They could afford to do it on the grounds of vulnerability in time of war, and because for some reason the agricultural group was a strong political lobbying factor. It was the last thing that New Zealand could do without dragging down her standard of living. Buffer Needed

In his view New Zealand had to establish some effective buffer but a comprehensive guaranteed price self contained in the economy was not possible. All that was possible was a basic price at which, when dairy prices fell through unfair conditions on the United Kingdom market, the 'country would sustain farmers until all the rest of the community came back to the same level. If the Commonwealth was a reality it had to be something more than conferences. It had to have an economic basis. That was one of the challenges that Britain as the mother of the Commonwealth had to face up to. There should be some formula so that tn good seasons, year in and year out, there should be some assurance of no more than fair marketing.