BUTTER IN THE MIDLANDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 7 August 1931, Page 5

BUTTER IN THE MIDLANDS

WHAT AN ENQUIRY SHOWS

The results of an inquiry regarding retail sales of' butter were published recently by the Empire Marketing Board. In November, 1928, the board selected four Midland towns about equidistant from the three main butterimporting districts (and therefore not particularly in the Irish, Danish and New Zealand spheres of influence), and by personal inquiry at over 150 shops collected a number of interesting figures on the sales and prices of the various classes of butter. An exactly similar inquiry during the same part of November, 1930, was carried out to ascertain what changes, if any, had occurred during a period in which butter 1 prices had fallen by about 25 per cent. The result shows that the total sales of butter rose by about 12 per cent, between the two dates; and, though Danish butter still retains the largest sale, New Zealand butter sales in the 1930 inquiry are 134 per cent, higher than in the 1928 inquiry. Commenting on the report, the London “Financial News’’ remarks that it shows that, despite the great improvement during recent years in the quality' of the highest grades of margarine, and despite the reduction of margarine prices, butter will still tend (o. be bought by a normal retail purchaser in preference to margarine when butter prices arc low. The interaction of the prices for the two products seems to be rather the same as with real and artificial silk prices. The second conclusion which suggests itself is that butter sales respond well to organised advertising; for tiie. New, Zealand butter, the sales, of which have increased far beyond those of other countries, has been very widely advertised both by the Empire Marketing Board and by other organisations during the last few yearp.