THE BUTTER RECORD.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8544, 26 March 1908, Page 3

THE BUTTER RECORD.

EXTRAORDINARY PRICES

LONDON, February 14

"There never was sich times," in Tooley Street, at any rate, since the days of the great fire. Grease was at the bottom of tho trouble then, and grease is the prime cause of the trouble today. Then, however, it was chiefly vulgar grease —tallow principally ; today it is butter. Fancy Australasian butter being sold at anything from 144s to 152s per cwt! This is easily a record price for any sort of butter for the last fivc-and-twenty years, though a few grey-headed salesmen have a recollection of one particular season, more than thirty years ago, when- fancy brands of Normandy were sold at 164s per cwt in early April, and the shortage was such that the wholesale houses in many cases were quite unable to supply their regular customers at any price. The extraordinary prices for Australasian butter current In Tooley Street must bo causing great excitement in the producing and shipping centres in Australia and New Zealand, and one effect will be that, not fully realising (hat these record values are solely the outcome of the shortage of colonial butter, factory managers will expect next season enhanced prices. At it is, the Commonwealth butter people are, on the whole, reaping the advantage of London quotations more than New Zealanders. A fair volume of New Zealand butter was sold forward for tho whole season at moderate prices, and in such cases the London buyers arc now getting back some of the money they lost in similar transactions last season. Victorian mostly comes along consigned, and a quantity of Sydney shipped butter is sold c.i.f. London week by week. In each case Australia is now scoring. WHAT OF THE FUTURE? What of the future of the butter market? It is a true and well-worn saying that "one extreme brings another," and so it will be in the present instance. Before tho summer of 1908 has far ad-

vanced, butter will again be in good supply. Already we learn that in several butter-producing countries largo and up-to-date machinery is being put down, so as to cope with tho demand. We may just now have to spread out" butter very carefully, but in due course we shall have bread buttered as cheaply as it has been for many years past. Meantime, the "shilling" butter known to the housewife has gone.,,. The lowest price is Is 2d, and seems sure to go to Is 4d. At this figure the demand will certainly fall off very materially, and butter in many houses will disappear in favour of margarine and jam, marmalade and such "relishes" will be brought into play as being cheaper than the usual bread covering. Still, no real relief from tho present situation can be expected till April is with us, and if the European spring is unfavourable to grass production it may bo May before we get down to a reasonable range of prices.

The reason for the present range of prices is not far to seek. Tho total imports of butter for 1907 were 4,216,435 cwt. ; of this quantity 936.539 cwt. came from Australasia and Canada (35.000 cwt.), and 3.279,896 cwt. from foreign countries. Tho grand total compares with 4,337,258 cwt. in 1906; the arrivals from tho colonies in 1906 were 1.048,467 ewt. (Canada, 190,968 cwt.). The colonial shortage shown in these totals is not a very considerable one, because in the early part of last year imports from Australasia were exceedingly heavy, but the arrivals from the Commonwealth in tho latter part of 1907 fell far short of normal figures; in fact, .tho butter famine now prevailing took its start from that period.

For many years past our winter supplies of butter have mainly come from (1) Denmark, Sweden, etc., (2) • Siberia, and (3) Australia and New Zealand, and merchants and brokers have to rely on these sources in order to supply tho wants of the British public in London, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large centres of consumption.

Taking Denmark first, 1907 showed a decrease of 38,000 cwt.; Russian and Siberia sent us 50,000 cwt. more than in tho previous year; Australia's figures have been given above. Considering tho figures for the first, month of the present year, tho total arrivals show a drop of 87.000 cwt.; from tho colonies we received 119.000 cwt. against 174,500 in January, 1906; from foreign countries our imports in tho same month were 228,000 cwt., against 260,000 for January, 1906. It is assumed here from the weather condtions thai prevailed in Australia in the producing period, that nothing in tho direction of a serious recovery can take place this season, and that, there will bo a shortage of something like 500,000 boxes of butter (12,500 tolls) by April next. The wholesale market prices for Australasian butter in Tooley. Street today mark an advance of over 50 per cent, on those ruling at the same period a year ago.- Then only a limited quantity of the very best Australasian was making over 104s, and the average for finest was not above 1025.!

A curious point in the situation is tho assimilation in price of New Zealand and Danish. These butters have been exactly the same in price since last Friday, a thing which has never occurred before, it -is believed, in the history of the butter trade, Danish butter generally enjoying a premium of 5s to 8s per cwt. ever New Zealand.