The Franklin Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1934. THE BUTTER BUSINESS.

Franklin Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 126, 2 November 1934, Page 4

The Franklin Times PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1934. THE BUTTER BUSINESS.

Office and Woirks:, . ■ ROULSTON STREET, 5 . PUKEKOHE. ’Phone No. 2. jP.O. B,ox 14. “We nothing extenuate nor aught set down in malice.”

THE chief topic of conversation almost everywhere at the present time is dairying, and one hears many suggestions as to how the industry can be rehabilitated. Almost without exception one hears the opinion expressed that the Government should assist the farmers financially, but seldom is a remark heard that the farmers, as a body, should help themselves. It is conceded that there are hundreds of model dairies in the Dominion, but on the other hand there are just as many which are not a credit to the industry. It is the latter class that should put its house in order. There should be no | half measures. Suppliers of an inferior grade, of cream penalise their fellow suppliers and the country, and I it is from this point of view that the J dairymen dan help themselves. Several' points occur to us where improve- | ments could be effected to the direct I benefit of the industiT- Let us ask ourselves at the outset why the disparity in the value of Danish and New Zealand butter? If we are fair we will reply: because the article of our chief

competitor is so much better than our own and consequently is in demand. One would naturally expect to find the consuming public falling over themselves in a mad rush to buy the cheaper article, providing, of course, quality is on a parallel. But what do we find? No demand for New Zealand butter despite the fact that it is offered !at perhaps the lowest price in the Dominion’s history. Assuming then | that the quality is at fault w'hen it is ! offered for sale, because the general opinion in New* Zealand is that the j quality is all that can be desired al J the date of manufacture, we must exi plore and ascertain what happens af- • ter the article leaves the churn and is placed in receptacles ready for export. Let us examine the position as we see it. The article is produced, say on November 1 at all factories in the ! Dominion and is placed in the nearest 1 cool store to await the arrival of an

overseas boat. The vessel arrives a j fortnight later, discharges its cargo ' and commences loading butter, say, at Wellington. It works the West Coast ' ports, then the. East Coast until its

holds are fully loaded. It might take l a fortnight, more or less, to-complete | loading. This means the buttey is at j least a month old before the boat steams out of New Zealand waters. This time could be reduced considerably if' butter from the districts now possessing a port was centralised in a , principal centre. Loading would be facilitated, and instead of a fortnight being taken a few days would suffice.

i The jourriey Home occupies between five and eight weeks. The average time taken would, for sake of argument, be fib out six weeks. From the date of manufacture until the butter arrives at its destination—English port—is, as we "have shown, anything between ten and twelve weeks. Upon arrival in the Old Country, the commodity is dumped into cool store again, and for all we in New Zealand know remains there for an indefinite period before being offered over the counter to the English housewife. Quality, therefore, must suffer, and is it little wonder that New Zealand butter is not in demand, when Danish butter, practically fresh from the churn can be offered for sale? We have not lost sight of the fact that when production was on a normal keel and the price was governed by the law of supply and demand, tha|. New Zealand butter comhilanded price almost equal to that of our principal competitor. If New Zealand I),lifter to-day was selling at .one-penny a pound less than the Danish article —we can never reasonably expect if to command the same pfice

as Danish, because'it cannot be offered as fresh butter—we would have no ground for complaint, but we do expect the difference in-the price of the two butters to be less than it- is today. The next point is that of marketing. Gan the authorities handling New Zealand butter in London guarantee the English housewife that when she asks for New Zealand butter that she can get it? We are afraid that they cannot under the present system of market-management. We must have continuity of. supply. Assuming that the local producing and manufacturing conditions, and* shipping arrangements are as near to perfection as it is humanely possible to have them, \ye must then examine the question of marketing. Under the present arrangement of despatching butter in bulk, there is grave suspicion that it is “manipulated” by some unscrupulous individuals in another place. For all we know, New Zealand butter might be bought at say 70/-, and sold as another popular brand in the Old Country at We have no’ guar-■ antee that it is not,' nor cs|we bpt£uye that it is. We db know thoughf“thal? there are tricks Jn. all have yet to solve.the trick in butter business. ; ®o golMe|he trick we would suggest' fsat ;$| Zealand butter be exported in "pound- pats'and branded “New Zealand.” The cost of manufacture would undoubtedly be increased a little, but as we still have some thousands of unemployed a^

number of these men could be taken on by the factories and paid a little by the industry itself and their wages supplemented by grants from the unemployment fund. If tlie industry benefited by this method through increased sales and a better price (we are told that in 1928 a rise or fall in the price of buiter of one penny a pound meant £1,000,000, and as production has doubled to-day it would mean £2,000,000), the industry could well afford to contribute something toward the extra cost involved. In the alternative a patting factory could be established in London. Then there is the all-important question of letting the English housewife know that there is such a commodity as New Zealand butter. To achieve this an intensive advertising campaign must be launched. If conditions do not improve, we will be compelled to relieve a glutted English market by finding new avenues for our dairy produce —we should do this in any case —and if we fail we will be faced with the problem of decreasing production, and of utilising our idle lands in other ways, by providing something New Zealand requires such as tobacco and sugar manufactured from beet.