POST-WAR EXPORTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 70, 19 September 1941, Page 4

POST-WAR EXPORTS

BUTTER, CHEESE, MEAT

CONTROL MAY CONTINUE

DIRECTOR'S SURVEY

A most interesting section of the address given by Mr. G. A. Duncan, Director of Export Marketing, recently returned from a mission to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, to delegates to the Dominion Dairy Conference, was his summing-up of prospects of post-war exports of dairy produce. During the immediate postwar period, he considers, the world demand for food will be greater than the available supplies, a condition which would seem to indicate the necessity for a period of continuance of control to permit of orderly and gradual return to normality. That factor was recognised, he remarked, in the contract arrangements between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, which were to continue for twelve months after the war.

Before the war the United Kingdom consumed 513,000 tons of butter a year; 45,000 tons were locally produced. Of the butter imported ,by the United Kingdom, New Zealand supplied 130,000 and Australia 90,000 tons. The European dairying countries supplied .225,000 and Empire sources, plus Eire and Argentina, 243,000-tons.

Many factors might; influence the post-war market in the United Kingdom for New Zealand butter and cheese: the time of the ending of; the war; purchasing power and employment; the United Kingdom export trade position, as affected, possibly, by the development of manufacturing in Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, and New Zealand; the post-war food policy and the position of agriculture' in Britain; the extent of the supply of butter and cheese to devastated Europe; prices of butter and margarine; shipping; the speed of European recovery after the war, particularly in respect of butter production.

AFTER THE WAR,

A major fac\or, said Mr. Duncan, would be the method of pbst-war distribution. Would controls and pricefixing have to be continued, and if so, for how long? Would the wartime concentration of industry, control of raw materials, allocation of shipping, licensing of imports, and regulations of the flow of labour and use of machinery persist after the war? If so, in what manner and for what period? It was difficult to imagine a gudden and- complete abandonment of those controls. Would the British Empire, with the U.S.A., have to continue the purchase of quotas of. foodstuffs during a post-war period to avoid the difficulties which followed the last war? ;-■ ■:■■■• ; '.'■'".■.. '.■ '■ . ■ ". <

WOULD DEMAND FOR FOOD.

"During the immediate post-war period the world demand for food will be greater than the available supplies, owing to shortage of shipping and the cutting off of European supplies," Mr. Duncan continued. "This situation seems to indicate the necessity for a. period of continuance of control to permit of orderly and gradual return to normality. . . . Sudden lifting of the rationing controls on food, clothing, and other commodities would lead to a scramble for the goods with inevitable price rises and disorganisation.

"The universal acceptance of the principle of fair treatment all round, and the wartime spirit of unity amongst the democracies, will necessitate the avoidance of post-war policies which will create unfairness in the trade relations of the Dominions with the United Kingdom, and indeed between the Empire and the democracies.

"But," concluded Mr. Duncan, "any attempt at assessment of all these factors must be speculative, and I found a. disposition on the part of traders, officials, and others in the United Kingdom to keep their minds on the present problem of winning the war, rather than to embark on these speculations.",' • :i