How The Manufacturer Helps The Producer

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 16 (Supplement)

How The Manufacturer Helps The Producer

Factory Processes Increase Farm Production

MANY minor markets, valuable side-lines and by-products, auxiliary avenues of export, factory processing of primary products, swell the demand for the output of New Zealand farms. In particular are these factory processes important, because, in many cases, they make possible the export of commodities in themselves fit only for local consumption. The processing of milk, for example. No doubt whatever New Zealand could materially increase her output of milk, but it would be useless to do so unless the market for butter and cheese, the only forms in which dairy produce is exported in bulk, could be correspondingly expanded. Milk itself cannot be exported, for obvious reasons, in its natural state —but factory processing has made possible a considerable trade in condensed and dried milk, thus absorbing thousands of gallons yearly over and above the butter and cheese exports. Indeed, butter and cheese manufacture are themselves semi-primary industries. They may, however, be regarded as the normal avenue for the export of dairy produce, just as the semi-primary industry of meat-freezing is the natural outlet for the country’s livestock production. Dried Milk Trade The annual export of dried and preserved milk amounts to 20,000,0001 b., is valued at £400,000. That does not include the very considerable quantity of these goods consumed within New Zealand, and amounting to at least 50 per cent, of the total output. The quantity of farm produce absorbed in this trade is approximately 60,000,000 of milk, 2,000,0001 b. of butterfat annually. The United Kingdom, Malaya, India and .the Society Islands are the main purchasers of New Zealand dried and preserved milk.

Casein, the basic matter of cheese, is another byproduct of the dairy industry. New Zealand is the manufacturer of the world’s best casein, and commands top price in the open market. Japan is the principal buyer. Yearly £200,000 worth of casein is exported.

Since the great growth in the popularity of icecream, milk-shakes, health foods, and so forth, thousands of gallons of milk and cream have been absorbed in the manufacture of these delicacies. New Zealanders eat 400,000 gallons of ice-cream yearly. The confectionery trade, too, absorbs quantities of milk. These industries are also brisk customers for orchard and agricultural produce; they are worth many thousands of pounds to the farmers yearly. The cult of the fruit drink has stimulated a £300,000 industry, while fruit-canning and jam-making are worth the same amount again.

The stock-breeder, too, is helped by many lesser industries that rely upon his products. The rennet manufacture, combined with the export trade in fiveday calves as boneless veal, has, in ten years, built up the bobby calf trade from nothing to an important industry, now worth half a million pounds a year. More than a million five-day calves are slaughtered annually in this trade. Bacon Curing

While the majority of the pigs slaughtered are exported as pork, a brisk ham and bacon-curing factory trade exists, catering largely for local consumption. Pigs numbering 200,000, worth £550,000, are treated in Dominion bacon factories in the twelvemonth.

Soap and candle works, which purchase their tallow and .fats from New Zealand farms and slaughterhouses, use £240,000 worth of materials yearly, have an output of £500,000 worth of goods. The tanning trade, which draws its raw materials from the farmer, and passes on its finished products to the boot and shoe trade, is also worth about £300,000 to the farmer, and has an output of half a million pounds’ value.

While still the greater part of New Zealand’s wool clip, more than £7,000,000 in value, is sent overseas,

wool to the value of £400,000 is purchased yearly by the woollen mills of the Dominion. This is an industry that is bound to grow with the growth of population, and in the future will doubtless absorb an increasingly large proportion of the farmers’ output.

The milling of cereal crops is, of course, an industry of great importance to the agriculturalist. The products are consumed almost entirely within the country. The wheat ground in the flour mills of the country amounts to 6,200,000 bushels, worth £1,650,000 yearly, and from it is made flour and other products worth £2,320,000. Meat Canning A most important by-product of the meat-freezing and slaughtering trade is the tinned and preserved meat manufacture, today worth £160,000 a year. New Zealand exports vast quantities of tinned meat to the United Kingdom, the East, and the Pacific Islands. This trade has swelled from £90,000, in 1931, to £280,000, in 1936, and is still increasing. Other sidelines of the meat industry are sausage-skins, bonedust, manure, meatmeal, all of which find use for matter otherwise a dead loss to farmer and factory manager.

Thus, in many ways, the manufacturer is able to increase the farmer’s economy of management, by utilizing products he would otherwise let waste, or byoffering new purposes for produce that, but for him, would tend to glut the market. Many of these industries based upon farm products are of quite recent development, and are likely to grow tremendously as time goes on. Many others, too, will come into existence in the future, as new markets are exploited and new tastes bring new demands. Only recently the possibility of exporting ghee, a butter product, to India was investigated—just as an example of the strange and unexpected markets that may be found for the Dominion’s dairy produce. Farmer and manufacturer are alike interested to probe the possibilities of new manufactures, and new resources, -which will contribute to the Dominion’s prosperity".