SHIPPING PRODUCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 234, 31 August 1935, Page 8

SHIPPING PRODUCE

SEASON’S PROBLEMS

DAIRY BOARD’S WORK

From a shipping viewpoint, last season, owing to production vagaries on account of unfavourable climatic conditions, was one of the most difficult expel it liced by the Dairy Board’s shipping officers. The annual report of the hoard shows that while, by the end of August, there was an increase of 3.5 per cent, up to the end of November a decrease of 2.35 per cent had been recorded. Each month following November witnessed a further decrease up till the end of March, at which stage favourable rains sent the. output upwards. Naturally, a .shipping programme which has to he arranged at the commencement of ihe season, ami which aims at giving a regular weekly arrival of butter and cheese in the United Kingdom, was disorganised, for tonnage requirements must he given to ship-owners many months in advance of the time of shipment. Despite the unexpected and variable monthly decrease, arrangements with the Overseas Shipowners’ Committee have worked so well that all space lias been satisfactorily allotted.

During the season. butter and cheese have been allotted to ships in quantities according to their date of arrival during the _ weeks of each month, and the joint efforts of the hoard and the ship-owners for regular weekly arrivals in the United Kingdom have only been nullified in some instances by circumstances which neither party could control. Weather conditions, the huge quantity to handle (approximately 230,000 tons) the larger number of ships to load, distance to and from the market, and the number of New Zealand ports of loading are some of the factors which present obstacles in the way of a perfect time-table shipping policy. A most marked improvement has, however, been effected in recent years, as the hoard’s reports clearly show.