BUITER EXPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 29, 3 August 1926, Page 3

BUITER EXPORT

— 1 LESSONS FROM DENMARK PROBLEMS FACING NEW ZEALAND AS VIEWED BY FARMERS' UNION" PRESIDENT. In addressing the annual conference of tho New Zealand Farmers' Union to-day, the president (Mr.. W. J. Poison) drew attention to tho experience which ho gained during his trip abroad as a member of the Rural Credits Commission. Dealing particularly with butter, Mr. Poison gave an interesting outline of Danish methods, and also dealt with problems facing the Now Zealand Dairy Control Board. "You are already familiar with the conditions under which Danish dairying is carried on, but the farms are not so small as may be imagined," said Mr. Poison. "The average size is over 35 acres, and with barn feeding, a heavy pig production, and extensive and intensive poultry raising, it is surprising what comfort and comparative luxury the average Danish farmer's family lives in. The usual form of farm steading is a square, the dwelling house occupying one side, the barn, the cowsheds, and the stables, the other three sides, with ati arched- entrance into the cobbled yard the buildings enclose. The barns and sheds are well ventilated and well warmed, and in a good shed tho cattle are both contented and comfortable. It is a mistake to suppose that the Danish dairy farmers are great co-operators. As a matter of fact, barely 40 per cent, of them are members of co-operative dairy factories at all. Thirty per cent, deal with private proprietary factories, and 30 per cent, sell to the C.W.S. and Maypole butter concerns of Great Britain, who have various organisations in Denmark. "PRICE FIXIN& WOULD BE SUICIDAL." "Dictation and any attempt at price fixing would, in my opinion, be suicidal. It is equally important that butter should not remain too long in store. We should never lose sight 'of the importance of freshness. English stores are not all of the same' standard, and in some of the sheds which do duty as such, the variations of temperature must play serious havoc with quality. Some experts think that we should concentrate on cheese more than we do. I was shown New Zealand cheese of such beautiful quality that it could not be beaten anywhere, and again cheese which looked not unlike., cracked soap. These variations' are no doubt due to circumstances boyond our control in New Zealand under present conditions, and constitute one of the problems the Dairy Control Board is called upon to face. "The whole position is surrounded with greater difficulties than I, for one, appreciated before investigating for myself. It apppears to me that we have failed to realise that our competitors have been moving forward faster than wo are, and that they are rapidly overhauling us. We must concentrate on quality more than we are doing, and study how to improve conditions at the other end so that all we gain at this end will not be lost there." PENALTIES FOE INFERIORITY. "The most important Danish co-op, dairy society is the Danish Co-op. Butter Co., at .Estjberg, which has 78 factories in its circle, averaging about 200 suppliers to the factory. These factories send in their butter bvery week to the company's store. Here the butter is carefully examined, both as to pack and contents, and graded for the English market. No really secondgrade bu/ter roaches this organisation. The penalties for inferior butter are so great/hat no factory producing such an article could afford to join it. The system is quite different from the New Zealand system and tho grades run from one, which is, of course, impossibly low, to 15, which is equally impossibly high. The best achieved is about 13, which is a phenomenally good quality of butter, and the average is 11, which is a good selling quality. The plati is to draw a sample from one or more casks of every association's weekly shipments, and; to keep it for three weeks so that there is always a week or two old sample to compare with the new lot. In this way a tag is kept on the keeping qualities of the butter. The sample which is kept is closed in an automatically adjusted temperature of over 60 degrees. The average of the factories' tests are taken and if, for example, the test works out at 11.17, then the butter is offered for sale as of a test of 11. «A dairy's butter which is 1 point beloii, or i point above the average, gets the same payment; but if it falls below that the deduction rises automatically in proportion to the fall in the number of points." After quoting tables showing the operation- of the Danish' system,': Mr. Poison proceeded: —"The factories are paid the Copenhagen quotation every ten days, and get any balance coming to thorn by way of bonus every year. The methods by which the Copenhagen quotation is made are familiar to everybody. It is a price fixed in conformity with selling conditions, and is in no way an attempt to hold up values. It has always been a sore point with the Danish factories that the Copenhagen city's price is always too low, but the over-price is received in the bonus, and when the bonus is large in any year tho following year's price is generally raised a little. There are eleven co-op, associations in Denmark and they exported 900,000 casks of butter last year. Tho Estjberg association alone exports 200,000 casks, or 3GOO a week. IMPORTANCE OF FRESHNESS. "The Danish system of control of butter prices is too well known to need further description here. It has no compulsory features. But the greatest importance is attached, not to price, but to freshness. The most important function of the committee is to see that Danish butter reaches the consumer fresh. That is where the Dane scores his sole victory over us. Unfortunately young Danes are going abroad to Latvia, Esthonia, Finland, and even Siberia, and teaching competitors how to make butter equal to tlieir own. Tho result is that a large and increasing amount of foreign butter is reaching England. The consequence is a congestion of butter in cold store at Home; a great deal of it New Zealand. Our Australian neighbours, profiting by Danish experience, are meeting the market, obtaining good sales, and reaching prices equal to New Zealand. How far this has been the result of the long storage of our product, and how far to anti-control propaganda, one cannot determine, but probably improvement in Australian quality is not alone responsible. MISUNDERSTANDING AT HOME. "There is unfortunately a very strong feeling at Home against what tho British grocer and merchant erroneously believe to bo the policy of the Dairy Board. Members of tho commission of which I was recently a member, who made careful investigations in most of the important centres of Great Britain, were astonished and alarmed at tho hostility of many who had forraorly been out customers and who were now purchasing other butters. It was difficult to mako them understand' that tho board had no policy of dictation in mind, but was out to establish a system which would remove instead of create difficulties.''