IMPORTS BY BRITAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 229, 26 August 1938, Page 5

IMPORTS BY BRITAIN

NEW ZEALAND’S RECORD. YEAR’S TRADE REVIEWED. ' LONDON, Aug. 6. New Zealand supplied Great Britain with more butter in 1937 than ever before The Dominion exported the record figure of 154,564 tons, which represented an increase of -6 per cent, over the previous record of 146,687 tons sent in the previous year. Furthermore, fhe marked decline in cheese grading, a feature of recent years, was cheeked, and 88,222 tons were exported to the United Kingdom, an increase of 3 per cent, over the previous year. New Zealand’s peak for cheese exports was in 1933-34, when tlio total was 103,682 tons. The figures are those of the Imperial Economic Committee, and appear in its review, Dairy Produce Supplies in 1937. Imports of butter into the United Kingdom in 1937, amounting to 9,416,000 cwt., valued at £47,400,000, were the smallest in any year since 1933. Imports from Empire countries comprised 52 per cent, of gross imports as against 53 per cent, in 1936 and 57 per cent, in 1935. Imports from Australia declined by 12 per cent.

Prices were for the greater part of the year above tho 1936 level. The apparent consumption of butter is estimated at 24.81 b a head, as against 25.01 b in 1936, but on the other hand margarine consumption rose from 8.61 b a head in 1936 to 8.91 b last year Rising prices for dairy produce were reflected in an increase in the value of the United Kingdom’s imports of these commodities last year, it is stated. The total cost of dairy produce, pig and poultry products imported was £117,000;000, or £9,000,000 more than in the preceding year, following an increase of £8,000,000 between 1935 and 1936. In this connecton several factors were of importance during 1937. In Europe unfavourable weather and the incidence of foot-and-mouth disease affected production to a considerable extent, and importing countries in certain cases relaxed restrictions on imports. In the Southern Hemisphere a second unfavourable season in Australia more than offset a further expansion in exports from New Zealand.