DAIRY PRICES
Warning Not To “Panic” (N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. June 30. As stability was essential to New Zealand's economy, the present dairy situation should not be looked at from a “panic point of view," Sir Alfred Hayward told the Dominion Dairy Conference today. He was making the point that the basic price for the 1961-62 season should not fall below the present price of 32d per lb for butterfat and 38d for cheese. It was announced earlier at the conference that the Dairy Price-Fixing Authority had delayed announcing the 1961-62 price until August. Sir Alfred Hayward said that the dairy industry did not expect to be mollicoddled but it did expect fair trading It also expected costs within the country to be held within bounds.
Both these qualifications had been stated by the industry when it agreed to accept overseas realisations Neither was being kept. The dairy farmer must be given confidence to carry on and any further drop in the basic price would be a very serious matter indeed. Sir Alfred Hayward said that in 1958 the industry was receiving 206 s a cwt ex store in the United Kingdom but in four months it had risen to 400 s. It was conseouently impossible to foretell the future, dark as it might seem now.
The deficit on the 1957-58 trading year was £2l million, while the net deuit at the end of May. 1961. was £l.B million.
What then was the justification for panic today? He said that the industry must maintain stability until its leaders and the Government had ironed out the problems of the European Economic Community and dumping. The conference unanimously endorsed a letter recently sent from the New Zealand Dairy Board to the Dairy Price-Fixing Authority urging that the price should not be reduced in 1961-62 below 32d for butterfat and 38d for cheese in the interests of the stability and efficiency of the dairy industry. It said that costs in New Zealand continued to rise and that unfair trading on the United Kingdom market was a national responsibility.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 12
Word Count
346DAIRY PRICES Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 12
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