Butter fear discounted

Press, 28 October 1982, Page 7

Butter fear discounted

PA Wellington New Zealand had overstated its case on the effects , of United States butter exports on the world market, a senior American agriculture official, Mr Bryant Wadsworth, has said in Wellington. The United States could sell 100,000 tonnes of its surplus butter a year for some time without drastically upsetting world prices, he said. Mr Wadsworth, director of the dairy, livestock, and .poultry division of the American Foreign Agricultural Service, said some United States butter sales abroad were likely. He is on a week’s tour of

New Zealand, including meetings with Government officials and the Dairy Board. He said at a press conference that the effect of large sales of American butter would not be as bad as New Zealand had said. “I am not saying it wouldn’t be rather grim, but I think it is overstated by the New Zealand side quite often, because they are nervous and scared and want to make a point.” The department hoped to give about 25,000 tonnes of the 187,000-tonne surplus to needy people within the United States over the next few months. At some point, he said, exports would then be needed.