RUSSIAN BUTTER ENIGMA

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 30, 4 August 1931, Page 4

RUSSIAN BUTTER ENIGMA

It is exceedingly difficult al this end of tlie world to obtain a clear view of the question of competition of Russian butter with the product of New Zealand. From latest cabled reports it is made to appear that the British market is depressed by the arrivals of butter from Russia, selling at prices that no New Zealand dairy farmer could accept unless at a serious loss. On the other hand, Mr. William Goodfellow, an acknowledged authority on the great dairy export trade of New Zealand, has publicly stated that British imports of butter from Russia were negligible. He spoke from firsthand information, for he has recently returned from London, where lie closely observed marketing conditions from every angle, and he also visited the butter-exporting countries in the Baltic Sea area. All the time BriLish Dominions (including New Zealand) erect formidable tariff barriers against the products of other British Dominions, and foreign countries raise similar obstacles to international trade, and Great Britain offers a free . and open market to the products of the world (with a few re-venue-producing exceptions) to the British market the surplus productions of all countries will go. New Zealand lakes its place with the other competitors, but in doing so iL has certain advantages in dairy farm production that fully compensate it for its long distance from its chief market. As matters are al present New Zealand butter is second in price only to Danish, the dearest imported butler. British imports of butter from Russia for the first six months of this year were half of what they were for the year 1929; but before the War, in 1914, they were 41,000 tons, compared with New Zealand's contribution .of 16,600 tons, of 1300 tons less than British imports of butter from Sweden. For the first half of 1931 the British imports of New Zealand butter were 54,487 tons compared with Russia's quota of 3488 tons for the same period. No doubt Mr. Goodfellow is justified —at the moment—in' refusing to be alarmed at Russian competition; but it will have lo be reckoned with in the general competition from other countries, even including Canada, which is now exporting butter to Great Britain. Tlie point the dairy industry has to keep in mind in dealing with competition in the British market is that made by the delegation of the New Zealand Dairy Board on its return from a tour of inquiry in 1924: "A period of fierce competition is immediately ahead of us. We have no doubt that this can be successfully met, but the fullest production of high-grade quality must be aimed at in every department. Wasteful methods, or anything contributing to low quality production, must be cut out."