BRITAIN'S MILK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 60, 8 September 1937, Page 13

BRITAIN'S MILK

LIQUID MARKET PUSH

EFFORTS BY THE BOARD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 18. Steps are being taken by the British Milk Marketing Board to ensure that every gallon of milk produced which can be so used goes into the more profitable markets of liquid consump-

tion, cream manufacture, and condensing rather than being used for butter production. Diversion of supplies is now being arranged with the co-operation of the buyers. This decision is partly the outcome ] of the Government's refusal to impose an earmarked tariff on imported butter and cheese, which it was hoped would serve to raise the price of the home products closer to an economic figure, and partly because the combination of cheap butter and cheap milk for English consumers is' spelling ruin to the English dairy farmer.

The milk producer in England today is experiencing a worrying time. The ordinary farmer who depends on the sale of his milk for a livelihood has had a lean year and has barely covered his outgoings. His production costs have risen, but, bound by an annual con-

tract fixing prices until the end of September, he has not been able to recoup himself. 'The Milk Marketing Board, the milk producers' selling organisation, is now discussing with milk-buyers the terms of the annual contracts which are to rule from Oc-

tober 1. (The 1936-37 pricas were:— October to March, Is 5d per gallon; April, Is 4d; May and June,' Is; July and August, Is Id; September, Is 3d.) Milk producers are unanimous in deImanding that the board shall obtain such contract prices as will give them an extra ljd a gallon in the pool prices. How the extra money is to be found does not really concern them. This, they regard as the business of their board, who, they . consider, should know the dairy industry well enough by now to tell which sections can afford to pay higher prices.

| ; While the milk producers have had | a lean year, it is an interesting lact that the sales of milk in Great Britain are rising. The National Milk Publicity Council.has issued a report on its six months' campaign in six selected industrial areas in order to increase the sale of liquid milk to industrial workers. So successful have the efforts of the organisers been that 4186 firms, employing 1,314,377 men and women, have been operating the i schemes. -The total reported and estimated consumption of milk under these schemes amounted to 434,605 gallons, for the month of May.

As there are still 3750 factories to be approached, the good work should be continued. One well-known firm wrote to the council to say that the scheme started with 1200 half-pints per week, and in six months the demand increased to over 5000 half-pints per week. The milk consumption was not confined to female workers; male workers have asked for the same facilities.