BUTTER WAR IN AUCKLAND

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 2564, 23 December 1924, Page 4

BUTTER WAR IN AUCKLAND

N.Z, CO-OP. UNDERSELLING COMPETITORS.

[Per ' D r< > '«‘’ Association "* * OPITIKI, Last Night.

In an interview concerning the reduction in the price of butter in Auckland, Mr H. R. Hogg, chairman of the Opotiki Dairy Association, pointed out that his company supplied a large proportion of the butter consumed in (Auckland, and naturally he felt sore at the action taken by one big firm in reducing prices, when apparently there was no good reason for the reduction, in view of the slate of the English market, and offers had been received by the Opotiki Company quite recently. According to latest London quotations. f.o.b. parity first grade butler was 1/8 a pound. Allowing lid for local marketing costs, the wholesale price of butter to-day should be l/9i. The New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, however, was selling at 1/45 downwards. Opotiki and some other companies declined to conform to the latest reduction, in which attitude it was supported by the Grocers’ Association. Ilis company objected to basing prices on suppositions concerning future values, considering that the only true basis of local prices was London parity. For many years, the butter committee fixing Auckland prices had worked on this basis. Mr Hogg added that it was unfortunate that one co-opera-tive company, in endeavouring to obtain control of the Auckland market, should make reductions so seriously affecting its own suppliers, as well as other dairy producers.