BUTTER FALLS AGAIN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 152, 13 June 1932, Page 11

BUTTER FALLS AGAIN

LONDON DECLINE GENERAL. HEAVY DANISH SUPPLY. Unfavourable influences from the Continent are again operating in the London butter market, and prices for New Zealand finest last week registered a decline of 3/- a cwt. to 95/- to 9t>/-. Practically the whole of the Danish output is now being shipped to Great Britain, and the low prices ruling are having a serious effect upon rates for New Zealand produce. Simitar conditions are governing cheese prices, which are 2/- to 3/- a cwt. lower, one of the most important factors in this caee being the low prices at which Danish bacon is being sold. “Unquestionably the Continental position is meantime going from bad to worse,” states A. S. Paterson and Company, Limited, in its weekly survey of the market. “The United Kingdom has been, and still is, in spite of tariffs on some lines, the dumping ground for Continental food surpluses, and Denmark is at present shipping to the United Kingdom weekly approximately 3,250 tons of butter out of a total export of 3,500 tons.” This compares with average weekly shipments from Denmark in June, 1931, of approximately 2,700 tons. The Northern Hemisphere is now well into its flush of the producing season. THE CHEESE POSITION. Referring to cheese, the firm’s review states that prices for both New Zealand and Canadian are easier, and that cheese generally is feeling the effects of the competition of cheap bacon, the cheese market always being susceptible to the influences of meat prices. Denmark is shipping enormous quantities of pig products to the United Kingdom, duty free, the value for years past having slightly exceeded the value of shipments of butter. The Danes follow out the same policy m the selling of their bacon as they do in the selling of their butter. They meet the market whatever it may be, their first consideration being to clear supplies as they arrive. One week’s supply of bacon is cleared before the next week’s supply is sent over. To-day, New Zealand cheese sales and prices are suffering as a direct result of the cheap prices at which bacon is being sold. DAIRY BOARD'S REPORT. The London butter trade is reported by the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board to have been slow throughout the past week, with the market depressed at the close. According to advice received by the board on Saturday New Zealand salted butter is now quoted at 94/- to 96/-, a decline of 3/on the previous week’s figures. This equals approximately 9.67 d per lb. f.o.b. The price of unsalted is unchanged at 96/- to 100/-. New Zealand and Danish butters are retailing in the North of England at 1/- a lb.

Deliveries of New Zealand butter during the past week totalled 1,296 tons, as against 1,079 tons for the corresponding week a year ago. The quantity in store is 6,200 tons, as compared with 5,944 twelve months ago. Deliveries of Australian butter amounted to 1,325 tons, as against 1.075 tons, and the quantity in store 1,738 tons as against 2,500 tons. Advice received by the board from its agents in Canada state that in New York butter is bringing 17J cents, and in Montreal 164 cents per lb. White and coloured cheese is quoted at 54/- to 55/-, which represents approximately 5 l-8d per lb. f.o.b. A year ago the quotation was 56/- to 57/-. The market is quiet, and the New Zealand retail price is 8d per lb. Deliveries last week amounted to 20,500 crates, as compared with 19,000 crates for the corresponding week in 1931. The amount in store is 103,237 crates, as against 170,000 crates tast year. Canadian deliveries totalled 2,700 boxes as against 3,149 boxes, and in store there is 72,000 boxes, as compared with 131,000 boxes.

The Port Dunedin sailed from New Zealand on Thursday last with 42,140 boxes of salted butter and 2,324 boxes of unsalted. The vessel also took 63 crates of whey, 4,382 crates of white cheese, and 3,313 crates of coloured cheese. On Friday the Port Melbourne sailed with 10.907 boxes of salted butter, 336 boxes of unsalted, 6,146 crates of white cheese, 4,652 of coloured, and 481 crates of whey.

The Dairy Board's London office reports the following prices ruling on Friday, those for the previous week and the corresponding day last year being given in parenthesis:—

BUTTER. New Zealand. —Salted, 94/- to 96/(97/- to 99/-; 1931, 109/- to 112/-); unsalted, 96/- to 100/- (96/- to 100/-; 1931, 114/- to 116/-); first whey, 88/(90/-); second whey, 86/- (88/-). Australian. —Salted. 93/- to 95/(96/- to 98/-); unsalted, 93/- to 96/(96/- to 98/-). Argentine.—Unsalted, 86/- to 88/-. ex 90/- (86/- to 92/-). Danish.—B4/ f.0.b., 98/- to 100/spot (88/- f.o.b. 104/- to 106/- spot). Dutch. —Unsalted, 126/- to 128/-. Irish.—Creamery, salted, 96/-; unsalted, 99/-. Esthonian. — Salted and unsalted, 90/- to 92/-. Latvian.—Salted and unsalted, 90/to 92/-. Siberian. —Salted and unsalted, 90/to 92/- (93/- to 95/-). Polish—B6/- to 90/-. Lithuanian. —86/- to 90/-. CHEESE. New Zealand. —White and coloured, 51/- to 51/6, ex 55/- (56/- to 55/-. coloured 56/- to 58/-). Canadian. —White. 66/- to 74/- (66/to 74/-); coloured, 66/- -to 70/- (66/- to 72/-); c.i.f., 52/-. English.—Finest farmers, 84/- to 86/-).