DAIRY PRODUCE

Grey River Argus, 10 February 1943, Page 3

DAIRY PRODUCE

BRITAIN’S PURCHASES More Paid to U.S. Than N.Z.. U-BOAT CAMPAIGN RESULT. [Per Press Association] AUCKLAND, February 9. * A disparity in the prices for butter and cheese being paid to New Zealand farmers and United States produces, as recently disclosed in quotations from an American trade journal, caused much interest in the dairy industry. It has been assumed in some quarters that the British Government has been buying butter and cheese from the United States and paying more than double the prices which are paid New Zealand farmers under the purchase agreement between Britain and the Dominion.

According to calculations based on the prices quoted in the trade journal, the wholesale price of butter f.o.b. at New York is £317 a ton, compared with the New Zealand guaranteed price of £143, and that of cheese £lB9, as against £Bl in the Dominion. From those figures it has been deduced by an authority in the New Zealand dairy industry that Dominion dairc farmers are greatly underpaid by the British Government, and that thev appear to be losers under the lend-lease scheme.

This authority described the position as a grave national loss and said this obviously unfair arrangement should be rectified immediately. An interesting review of the position was made in a statement by Mr. A. J. Sinclair, secretary-manager of the Te Awamutu Co-operative Dairy Company, and a member of the Dairy Industrial Council. "The frank and. serious statements made in Britain during recent weeks concerning the effects of the U-boat campaign on Allied shipping make it conceivable that, to meet an urgent temporary need, the British Government is prepared to draw supplies and foodstuffs from near by markets at prices greatly in excess of current values in Britain, but it would be surprising to learn that this has been adopted as a long-term policy for unlimited quantities of dairy produce,” said Mr Sinclair.

"Normally, the United States consumes the whole of Its butter and cheese production and has no exportable surplus, and it is difficult to believe that the British Government is paying prices in excess of those obtained by the American dairy farmer on his home market. In the last war Britain paid the Danish farmers prices far in excess of those received bv Australian and New Zealand dairymen, but we raised no objections, "because it was a temporary expedient of the British Government to divert butter from Germany. "The position with regard to the prices paid by Britain to the United States for butter and cheese is being fully investigated, and there is meantime a reluctance in the dairy industry to believe that the British Government is giving Australian and New Zealand dairymen a raw deal, or that the Commonwealth and New Zealand Governments are asleep.” continued Mr. Sinclair. "It has to be conceded that, with the knowledge of the grave difficulties confronting us in getting our produce to markets 14.00 Q miles away, our main reaction has not been with the prices paid by Britain. It has been one of profound admiration for the great work achieved by the British Navy and the Merchant Navy in maintaining our cool store stocks at such remarkably low levels after three years of war.

"Immediately after the outbreak of war, 'one of the first steps taken by the dairy industry in national conference was to submit a recommendation to the New Zealand Government that, in negotiations with the British Government for a long-term contract covering the whole of our exportable produce, no attempt should be made to secure undue profits from the Government or the people of Great Britain because of war conditions. "With a vivid recollection of what occurred during the last boom penoq and its inevitable aftermath, the industry’s leaders considered that this policv was economically sound, apart from the patriotic aspect. The dairy industry certainly has a grievance, but it is concerned not so much with what we are receiving for our produce, as with the fact that the price was stabilised without provision beinp- made •to safeguard farmers against the steady increase in farming costs year by year.

‘‘The New Zealand dairg farmer will not be thrown off his balance by the remarkable increase now being quoted for the purchase of dairy produce by the British Government in the United States under the lendlease arrangement,” concluded Mr. Sinclair. ‘‘He will be satisfied to suspend judgment in the meantime, knowing that the fullest information is being obtained on hig behalf.”