THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 27 January 1927, Page 3

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

MARKETING CONDITIONS.

NEW ZEALAND COMPETITORS EXPORT ADVISOR’S IMPRESSIONS “From, my observations while in the United Kingdom, I feel confident, that-o-ood quaLity butter and cheese will always find a market even when the market is dull,” said Mr. F, W Grainger. export advisor to the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board nub Patea yeste-r----tlav 'when presenting a paper, the. keynote of which, was quality, to the conference of dairy factoiy managers and directors.

Continuing, Mr. Grainger sard that low quality butter produced at low cost could possibly compete on t™ markets, but in New Zealand the industry was not in ta position to produS cheaply. Therefore it became necessary to concentrate on an article of the 7ery highest quality In order to do this the farmer must do his part hv attendin'’' to cleanliness m Ins milking shed surmundings -and utensils and make every effort to deliver only high quality milk or cream at the torv Factory managers had done wonderfully well in the past and were on the whole, ever ready to profit by instances there seemed to be a want of care in the -finishing oft of cheese by the leaving of an unnecessary deep rim to the cheese. He had seen many cases where such a Practice had led to *a loss through mould getting in and when the cheese vms strapped from one to two- inches of the crown came away with the bandage This was one matter that could be remedied. . . , . “There is no doubt- in my mind that the very comprehensive system ox grading during the past 25 years has done much in raising our produce to the position it has attained on the Home markets to-day,” he- -said, and went on to congratulate the officer,, ot the department for the very useful work thev had done in the niterests ot the dairy fanners of the Dominion. Mr Grainger emphasised the necessity of 'retaining good quality of produce riaht until it reached the consumer, and stated that produce should never be subjected to adverse conditions. Transport to the grading stores from the factory .should he in a. covered wao-gon, with ample air space, and produce should never be allowed to lie about land become heated. The sooner it was in the cool store the better. He was pleased to say that .since -the board had exercised supervision the handlino- between the stores and the ships had improved 100 per cent. The other end, however, told a different story.

COMPETITION WITH BUTTER.. Referring to butter, Mr. Grainger forecasted greater competition an the future for Russia. Siberia, and the Balkan States were in a position to produce this commodity at low cost, and could therefore- afford to market their butter at a lower figure than New Zealand could do. In order to meet this competition he advocated steps to cheapen production costs. _ Referring to foreign makes appearing on the British markets, Mr. Grainger said that Argentine butter had a. most unpleasant soda flavour, due-, no doubt, to the neuter a-lising acidity necessitated because of the long distances cream had to be transported to reach factories, but no doubt this trouble would, in the course of time, be eliminated. Be did not sample any good Siberian butter and its -price indicated that it lacked quality. French butter packed in baskets was also’ of mtei ior quality. On the other hand, Denmark was able to place its butter fresh on the market in fact, it was not stored at all. Moreover, -by their sy-sem of regufaino- the .supply to meet the demand, they 5 actually had a higher production during their winter months than in the summer. At least, a greater tonnage was exported to- England in December than in .any other month. He was of the opinion that if Danish butter had to undergo -the treatment to which New Zealand produce was subjected, it would not stand up to- the storage and -long -sea voyage nearly so well. , Irish butter was .seasonable, being on the market practically only during January, February, and April, yet they had been exporting to. England for over 2CO years. The maximum, output reached England in 1914, when 355,000 cwt. were exportedhut since that yeia.r the trade had declined. Now, however, its exports are on the increase and 70 per cent, of the. butter from this source was creamery butter. Only 25 per cent, was factory blended and 5 per cent, was farmers’ butter. It had been .reported in a trade journal that the Irish creameries had bought a quantity of New Zealand butter for blending purposes .and this was considered to he. quite legitimate business. One merchant, who was interviewed by Mr. Grainger, in the North of England, considered that it New Zealand butter was packed m ke <T s -.similar to the Danish product, it would capture all the local, markets, but Mr. Grainger’s own opinion was that local be overcome in time by marketing:. New Zealand produce under its national name m lib and bib cartons. BLENDERS ACTIVE.

Mr. Grainger said 10 per cent of the whole of the butter imported into England passed through the hands of the butter blenders. This (represented about 000,000 ewt and the blended article often carried the name of a well known dairying district on the wrappers, thus giving the implication that it wa,s manufactured in those districts. In this process, pointed out Mr. Grainger, New Zealand produce lost its identity, but so ioing as- the blended article was not passed off as New Zealand, he believed it was better to- accept the practice and at the same time foster a taste for good butter by packing all the Dominion's produce under the national fern leaf brand. The system of regulating shipments inaugurated by the Dairy Board had been more or less defeated last year by the overseas shipping strike, and later by individual factories holding produce in storage without any collective knowledge of what each, was doing. The results, as many wore aware, were disastrous to' the price obtained and some brands had to remain off the market for practically the. whole year, owing to the prohibitive price placed on it in New Zealand. Merchants had perforce to obtain their supplies from, other sources.

‘‘What can we do to meet the competition that will 4uave to be faced in the future?” continued Mr. Grainger. “I have already stressed the point of highest quality, but there is also anther factor, that is the increased quantity of raw material, by the adoption of methods on a more extensive scale that have already been nroved to effect this desirable end.’’ Testing and culling was a remedy .adopted by the Danes, and a$ result the average

there had been increased from SQlbs of butterfat .per cow in 1870 to over 2331bs per cow in 1925. The benefit of this system was also recognised in England," where -instances were recorded of the cash returns for a herd of 30 cows in the. seventh year of testing was £445 10s more than the return m the first year. Another instance related to- a herd of 46 cows tested for four years, with a. cash return increase of £798. Feeding was another factor which could be' made to contribute to an increased yield, loss of weight -being naturally followed by lower production. IRISH BULLS LICENSED. In northern Ireland another means had been put into .practice by requiring all bulls to be licensed and making it a. penalty to put unlicensed annuals into service. In 1926 thirty per cent of bulls were rejected by the Ministry and by this means the grading up of herd .standards became assured. A factor having an important hearing on the future market- -for butter was the “drink more milk” campaign being instituted at Home. A London newspaper had .recently estimated the consumption of milk in the United Kingdom in liquid form at only 19 gallons per head of the population, whereas in the United States it was 38 gallons, and in Denmark and Sweden it was 57 gallons. Mr Grainger made a brief reference to the. vexed : question of price fixing. He explained that Denmark has a -system which for many years past had virtually fixed prices for butter. The method followed was through a committee representing both the producing and exporting interests which, meeting at Copenhagen weekly, set a figure which was .so far authoritative that it furnished the basis for bargaining between buyer and -seller. The .speaker understood that the New Zealand Board’s London agency would work on a somewhat similar system working together with a committee appointed by the Tooley Street merchants and revue wing the- whole .aspect of the market with a consequent decision as to a jumping-off point. While the economic law of supply and demand could not be overridden, the fact of a stated price would have a tendency to .steady the market from violent fluctuations. In the past- importing merchants had tliem.seves fixed prices, hut the difference under the new system was that the producers would have a voice in the matter, and the tendency would be to discourage speculation. “The old .system,” emphasised Mr Grainger, “where an importer was both a buyer and a commission agent was not- in my opinion in the best interests of the producer. It is only human nature that a merchant in such a position .should endeavour to safeguard his own produce before his consignment stock. Especially would this apply on a fluctuating market.” LOW ENGLISH CONSUMPTION. An illustration that there was room for increased consumption of butter in the United Kingdom was shown by the fact that the annual consumption per head was only 17Ibs a.s compared with 281bs in Canada, 271bs in Australia, and 211 b-s in New Zealand. The best quality margarine in the United Kingdom contained about 10 per cent of butter, this being limited by law. Due to lack of vitimines, however, the food value of margarine was low when compared with butter, and when the latter product could be sold below 2s per lb it would be greatly preferred. The. United Kingdom consumed 11.77 lbs of margarine per head -annually. Hoi and absorbed 15.69, Germany 12.34, Belgium 7.42. Ft aft ice 1.54, Denmark 45.69, Norway 35.27, and Sweden 12.27 lbs respectively. From this it would appear that Denmark exported her butter and fed on margarine. In Canada the. manufacture of margarine was prohibited. In describing a visit-do ,a margarine factory in England, Mr Grainger detailed the ingredient® and the method of manufacture, his impression being that it was not an inviting product, and, to the palate, could not be compared with butter. He also mentioned that the particular factory used 500 boxes of New Zealand butter, a week in the process.

LESS COMPETITION FOR CHEESE. Referring to cheese, Mr Grainger gave the opinion that New Zealand would not be faced with the .same keen competition as in butter, the majority of the cheese .at .present reaching the- United Kingdom coming from Canada, and New Zealand. A few years ago the former country had the bulk of this trade, but to-day New Zealand held pride _ of place: as the largest cheese supplier to the United Kingdom. In 1925 Canada exported 41 per cent, and New Zeaa.nd 4o per cent, of the whole of the cheese- imported into Great Britain, the quantities in hundredweights being New Zealand 1,1479.300. and Canada 1,392,900. The Canadian cheese he had seen in London was all being held under good cool storage conditions, whilst ours was in very indifferent storage, a contrast which it was hoped would soon be remedied. Speaking broadly, there was no doubt that New Zealand cheese war very uniform, with the exception of some pasteurised lines which developed some unpasteurised lines which developed verv objectionable flavours with age. In the United Kingdom cheese production was mainly from individual .farm®, and in consequence there was a great variation in body and flavour, though by the formation of associations, particularly in Scotland, an endeavour was being made to- get a more uniform standard.