BUTTER PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 134, 4 December 1930, Page 10

BUTTER PRICES

NEW ZEALAND AND DANISH

WHY THE BIG DIFFERENCE?

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, 3rd December. At a meeting of dairymen this afternoon to consider the question of wages paid to factory assistants and other matters affecting the farming industry, Mr. John Christie said he would like those present to consider the cause of the difference in price paid in England for New Zealand butter as compared with Danish. He said that at the present time there was a difference of 30s per ewt in the price of butter from the two countries, and that previously it used to be only 10s or 12s per cwt. There was something wrong somewhere. It had been said that the difference in price was the result of hardness in New Zealand butter. The chairman of the meeting (Mr. A. W. Amos) said he was afraid that it would be a hard thing for them to work out a solution, as they were mostly interested in cheese making. Mr. Christie moved: "That we communicate immediately with the Dairy Produce Board and ask it for an explanation as to why the great differonce in the price of the- two butters has occurred." Mr. F. Waite, M.P., said that advice had been received in Wellington that the cause of the trouble was the heavy stocks of New Zealand butter in cold storage, these having been carried over, for a long time. New Zealand butter was stored and Danish butter was fresh. Although complaints of bad trade and depression were general, the consuming public in England was prepared to pay 3d per lb more for Danish as compared with New Zealand und Australian butter. The motion was carried.