SLUMP IN BUTTER

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 7 January 1926, Page 5

SLUMP IN BUTTER

OPINION OF A TRAVELLER. GOOD MARKET IN AMERICA. DANISH SOLD AT SEATTLE. PALMERSTON N., Jan. 5. While butter-fat prices in New Zealand have slumped to Is 4d per lb, they have jumped to 3s on the Pacific coast of the United States and with no immediate prospects of reduction. “Danish butter was on sale in Seattle,’’ said Mr. Herman Seifert, a wellknown Manawatu farmer, in an interview with the Manawatu Times. He was there recently and naturally he' wants to know why the Dairy Control Board cannot land New Zealand butter on the Pacific seaboard as cheaply and as easily as Danish can be shipped .over rhe Atlantic and railed across the Continent. ‘ ‘ This country has set up a dairy control board to look after the dairyman’s interests, and to see that he get? the best juices obtainable for his but-, ter, ’ ’ said Mr. Seifert. ‘ ‘ Some of the dairy farmers’ hard-earned money ha? been spent in sending delegations round the world to get first-hand information so that dairymen might get better returns for their labour and captal. When I left London, about three months ago, a second delegation had arrived there at the expense of the dairy farmer, I suppose to look still deeper into butter prices with a view to assisting the hard-working cow-spanker to earn a decent living. It does not look as if they have met with much success, as on my landing back home I found that our butter market had collapsed and factories were paying out round about Is 4d per lb for butter-fat. ‘ ‘ This came as a great surprise. to me, because when I left the United States the butter market was booming, and there was not the slightest indication of a setback in the price. As X only left there on December 2, it seem 3 strange that some of our butter has not been sent there to relieve the London market. When I was in Seattle, last. October, I saw Banish butter advertised for sale, but not a single pound of New Zealand was in sight. It may well be asked what is our control board doing? What is wrong with our butter? What is wrong with our system of marketing? There must be some l " thing wrong somewhere if Danish butter can find a profitable market on the Pacific seaboard of the United States and we with a direct subsidised steamer service-to San Francisco and Vancouver cannot find a market there at all.

"I was in Bakersfield, California, in November 11 last, and this is what I read m the Bakersfield Evening Echo: ‘Keen country dairymen are reaping rich harvests. In boom times Europe buys more butter as rehabilitation work is having effect in the world’s price.’ Butter prices in Bakersfield, Kern County, California markets were quoted at 65 and 66 cents (2s BJd and 2s 9d per pound on November 10 last. The Bakersfield Echo stated on November 11 that butter prices were skyrocketing and have reached the highest prices since the war in Bakersfield. It was announced that the Kern County Creamery Company' was buying raw milk on the basis of 15 cents (74d) a pound premium above the Los. Angeles market. For butter-fat content this makes a price of 72 cents (3s) a' pound in Bakersfield with the Los Angeles market price at 57 cents (2s 4d). The Wasco Creamery Company announced an advance to 69 cents (2s 104 d) per pound, 12 cents premium over the Los Angeles price for butter-fat content. Mr. Seifert stated that it certainly does not look as if any New Zealand butter was finding its way to the Californian market. Judging by the payments by butter factories in New Zealand it looked as if all our produce is being dumped on to the London market to help further to depress the wretched earnings of Now Zealand dairvinen.

“Why can’t we send butter to the Pacific coast cities of America?” ho remarked. “If I remember rightly the duty is about 5d per lb and the shipping and other charges are certainly' no more than they' are to the London market. If that is the ease, theio would certainly be a handsome margin. Even if the butter were sold at the same prices as on the London market, the producer would benefit because the relief thus afforded would prevent the disastrous dumping of butter in London which lias meant a loss of so many thousands of pounds this year.”