BUTTER SUBSTITUTES

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3249, 20 January 1926, Page 10

BUTTER SUBSTITUTES

CHEAP AND NASTY. RIVALS OF THE DAIRY. Vegetable oils are used to a larger extent to replace lard than butter, according to the United States Bureau of Markets. It estimates that lard substitutes comprised 34 per cent, of the total lard and lard substitutes produced in the United States, while olemargarine was about 20 per cent, of the total butter and butter substitutes, jlt is estimated that there were L422,458,0001b of butter produced in the United States during 1920, of which 800,000,0001 b was factory butter and 600,000,0001 b was farm butter. The total production of oleo for 1920 was 370,.780,0001b, of which 191,000,0001 b was made exclusively from vegetable oils. A study of the relative wholesale prices of butter, oleomargarine, nut margarine, and cocoanut oil presents some interesting ’ comparisons. It will be noted that 92-point butter averaged about lOd above oleomargarine (the packing-house product) , and "nut” margarine from cocoanut oil about 5d lower than the packinghouse product at the beginning of 3 920, but reaching the same price at the opening of 1921. Coooanut oil ranged from slightly above the fifteen months. Definite figures for April 'and May are not available as this is j written, but the spread between butter land the limitation product is now I probably not very la rg e. "The stability of margarine prices,” says the Bureau of Markets, “is proibably due in part to controlled production and marketing, while butter prices show the usual fluctations of commodites whose production and marketing are uncontrolled.” Tliis comparision is more startling when weekly quotations are given, as butetr will show changes of as much as 10 cents in one month, while the imitation product Is held at a practiIcally stationary price level. The total margarine production has increased from 202,000,0001 b in 1916 to nearly 371,000,0001 bin 1920, the past year however showing a decVease of over a half-million pounds from tho previous year. | Since 1916 the total production of 'butter has increased from 1,621,700,0001 b to 1,442,458,0001 b, or .over 179,000,0001 b the decrease from 1919 amounting to over 100,000,0001 b. During the past five years the ratio of substitutes to the total butter and substitute has jumped from 1 per cent to 20 per cent.