Assessment Of Dairy Marketing Position

Press, Volume C, Issue 29620, 16 September 1961, Page 5

Assessment Of Dairy Marketing Position

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Sept. 14. Dairy products markets which New Zealand had been striving for since 1955 could be disrupted by a flood of milk fat and milk powder from Europe, said Mr P. B. Marshall, general manager of the Dairy Production and Marketing Board today. Addressing the annual conference of the Auckland branch of the Dairy Factory Managers’ Association, Mr Marshal] said that while it might be possible to achieve some semblance of order in the British market, it seemed almost too much to hope for an early abolition of high-sup-port prices, guarantees, and artiflcially-high internal prices for butter. “If these evils cannot be abolished, I greatly fear that the flood of milk fat and milk powder from Europe may be turned to other world markets at uneconomic prices, as has been the case with United States milk powder,” he said. “Serious Position" A serious position was developing in Canadian dairy production, and New Zealand butter, cheese, and milk powder was being completely excluded. There were also wellfounded rumours from a country “much closer to home” concerning increased subsidies, and a policy of increased dairy production. This policy was designed to earn foreign exchange from the sale of what would be “dumped dairy products” in world markets. The first and most obvious answer for New Zealand to these threats was to find new markets. One answer might lie in consultation at the highest Government level with the United States and Canadian Governments. Mr Marshall said another answer for New Zealand might lie in the provision of bounties, relief from taxation, and the financing of ventures which resulted in additional outlets for New Zealand from both primary and secondary industry.

“Without efforts of this type, I fear that our dairy industry will continue to suffer from unfair competition from the closed-door policy, now so

common in many countries,” Mr Marshall said.

“Worse still, perhaps our dairy industry may slowly drift into the same situation as the dairy industries of nearly all other countries by becoming a subsidised section of the community, and existing merely for the purpose of earning foreign exchange to help the rest of the community buy its imports.”