WITHDRAWAL OF LIMITS.

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 39, 15 August 1921, Page 7

WITHDRAWAL OF LIMITS.

Reference was made i,n The Post to the fact that some of the largest buyers of New Zealand cheese have stopped operating. Whate^fer their reasons for this may be, Mr. Martin could not state, unless, as given out by themselves, the price advance to too high a figure "Admitting," he added, "that the Home price to-day for cheese is in the region of 132s to 136s per cwt c.i.f., still the fact has to be kept in mind that the Home operator, in buying a season's output, is not buying cheese for delivery on to-day's market or next month's or the month following, but has to take the risk of the last of that shipment arriving in London twelve months hence, i.e., a factory's output of September-May make lands on the English market from November to August. A buyers requires a considerable amount of faith in the market to operate so far ahead, and faith in the stability of markets generally has been seriously shattered during the past twelve months. This brings me to this point, that it.would be to the interests of New Zealand factories if they changed their policy altogether, and, instead of consigning, obtained.ihe^'London market value by making definite f.o.b. New Zealand sales of their. cheese and butter every mouth. They could seil September output alone or September-October output alone. They would, in this way, get lull market value, and the Home buyer

would know jußt exactly when his produce was going to reach the Home market and arrange his sales accordingly. "VERY CONSERVATIVE."

" There are companies in New Zealaft'd who are preapred to operate on thest lines, and a few factories have already adopted this system; but in the main the New Zealand factories are very conservative, and insist on the ojd~ consigning system, though the consigning system in nearly every other commodity lias broken down. The proportion of wool consigned is infinitesimal compared with the quantities sold at auction in New Zealand. The farmers know that in the meat business they do not consign their meat excepting in rare instances, but instead sell outright to the freezing companies and other dealers in this country, and, if they were asked to take the risk of consigning their meat Home, would be inclined to state that the risks were too great, yet they will not apply the same rule to their product* of butter and cheese. Hides, skins, tallow, grain, hemp, and all other lines are ill the main nold outright, and not shipped on consignment; but in dairy produce we hang on to the old conservative system of consigning."

Referring to" the Palmerston North report, Mr.' Martin said he knew that factories were offering to sell cheese at lli-d. but they could not find buyers at that figure. The position was unchanged: Buyers have withdrawn for the time being. -