The Butter Market.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7826, 4 May 1904, Page 8

The Butter Market.

Fall in Prices

Warniui? to tho Retait Trade

A gentleman intimately connected with the butter trade in- this district, and one whose opinion. is worthy of consideration, sounded a note of warning' to a " Standard " representative this morning on tho 'above subject.

At the present moment, said the gentleman referred to,' the storekeepers and. others in the retail trade were apt to cause a depression in the local market by selling at reduced rates on account of the reports from Home of falling prices. But the London market, lie points out, has nothing- to do with the local market, as it is fully recognised that the wholesale. price for creamery butter shoiild never be below lOd. It therefore behoves all concerned to maintain this price. Should this standard be lowered it must follow that suppliers will be compelled to accept lower prices for butter fat and those who have paid high figures for land will not be able to meet the demands of the landlord or mortgagee; . House retailers and those depending on them would be among the fust to feel tho reaction. One of the principal causes of the present decline at Home was that, some wholesale firms in England have been buying at high prices in the hope of holding the stocks while the market hardened. Their hopes.had not been realised, and tho specualtors were compelled to unload at -reduced rates. In view of the .fact, then, that the decline was only .temporary, it was all the more imperative tliat rumours of tightness .should be dispelled and the local market kept up to the standard.