BRITISH BUTTER MARKET.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 2 July 1921, Page 3

BRITISH BUTTER MARKET.

ABNORMAL FALL IN PRICES

LONDON, May ■ 13:"; ;#9 It is estimated'that at the end of ;-' March Government-owned butter in "£ -store and still to arrive amotunted •*» 150,00 tons. The greater proportion of- ( this is Australian and New Zealand produce, the remainder is Argentine. New Zealand and Australian butter has cost the Government about 2s .10d per „ pound to land in this country. To-day one can purchase good quality at the / « retail price of 2s i4£ a pound. jlowever~ ,J" much the general T>ublic.may have bene-- ■ fited, the-pa>t month.has not been an encouraging one for those in the trade. . ~ When the Bo"ard of Trade took over*1 i from the Ministry of Food at the be-, ,-^ ginning of April it was arranged that the Board should each week adjucit the - wholesale price of the Government- -) owned produce. On April 2 New Zea- **" land first and second gradeywajj offered at 262s per cwt.. Australian first and < se.Qond grade at 244s per cwt., Argentine at 240s } and Australian third grade~ at 208s. A fortnight later Australian first ■ and second prade was raised to 2505, while Argentine was decreased to v 220s per cwt. On the 29th of April no A alteration was made, and consequently there were no sales of Government but-—^ tr. Last week the prices were lowered still further, first arid second grade New A Zealand being offered at 1925/, first raid J second grade Australian 1865,, third * grade Australian 1765, and Argentine i 166s,per cwt. Since then, .howefver the , * Board has announced, that : N«v 7ealand butter is withdrawn from fale for A the present. M The reason for this withdrawal is, of " course, the fact that it is the vfry left j description for storing, and no doubt A the Board of Trade hones that with the "*-J end-, of the Strike the market will re-^ cover. .There was certainly a downward"-* tendency before the strike commenced, but prices could never have come down" £ so quickly to their present level had it t not been for the industrial trouble. Jn normal times the coal-mining c«Tm-~*gf munity and. the neople of the industrial centres insist on having the best botl<T^ '' Now, however, they cannot r.fforri to buy it, and with Maypole moigarine selhner at 8d a pound it "is only natural - [that the greater luxury should Jhe di«pensedy- with for the time being. < News comes from Ireland that the prices of the the best butter has fatten T>y < 100s a cwt. in lere than a month.' r | Prices are expected to fall still lower. [The wholesale price of best butter in ' } Cork att he present time is Is 4jd a/ pound, which works out at 154s a cwt. Although those in a position to express an opr'nion anticipate a r.se in the market when the coal strike comes to an end. they do not +hink that prices can get back to what they were a monthaco. The fact of the 'matter is that things have greatly chanced n the past eight months. With the Danish, Dutch, and Canadian markets restored to normal, there is more than enough, with the aid of colonial, Irish, and home manufactured;; to meet the demand, and the fact that other European countries v cannot afford to'buv makes the supply * available in England all the One thing seems cert^M, that the British ■Grwernmont stand to los^ anvtiiinfr , in to £6,000,000 on their ti.itet '« contracts