Comment on Current Topics

Northland Age, Volume 1, Issue 3, 23 October 1931, Page 10

Comment on Current Topics

OUR BUTTER MARKET

THE Dairy Produce Board has issued a very interesting table of the importation of buttei into Great Britain, which shows that of the 302,485 tons received from all sources this year up to September 30th, only 143,498 tons, less than half, came from British countries. New Zealand of course heads the list with 72,963 tons, a little over half the British supply, but less than a quarter of the total. But our trade shows an encouraging increase, from 59,076 tons for the first nine months of last year, a rise of 3,887 tons or nearly 7 percent. Australia, however, jumped from 33,103 tons for the nine months of 1930 to 54,923 tons this, a rise of nearly two-thirds. The Irish Free State, whose exports of butter in 1930 was only a little ahead of 1929, 21,755 tons from 21,215 tons, drops this year to 15,612 tons, but the outbreak of cattle disease in Ireland and the consequent restrictions in trade likely account for this. The exports of the three British countries has risen this year from 113,934 tons to 143,498 tons, an increase of over 17 percent. Proportionately, therefore, we in New Zealand are not holding our own.

Of the foreign shippers, Denmark supplied

93,359 tons of the 158,937 tons of foreign butter imported, not far off two-thirds. This shows a rise of 17 percent on last year’s figures, but of only 15 percent on 1929, so the increase spread over the two years is slightly higher than our own. Russia sent 13,487 tons against 6375 tons in 1930, more than doubling the supply, which gives some colour to the cry of dumping till we find that this year shows an increase of only 383 tons more than in 1929. The Argentine contribution dropped from 15,024 tons to 13,487 tons this year. Finland’s 9,750 tons shows a slight increase over last year, but Sweden drops nearly 3,000 tons from last year’s supply to 8,391 tons this. Esthonia, one of the Baltic states carved out of what was the Russian Empire, makes a start on the British market with a modest contribution of 5,123 tons, and Holland increases her supply from 3,682 tons to 4,042 tons. Other sources show a falling off, from 15,342 tons in 1929 to 12,752 tons in 1930, and 11,245 tons this year.

One cheering feature of the return is that in spite of the great depression in Britain, certainly as great this year as last, the consumption of butter is steadily increasing. The total imports of butter, 302,485 tons, show a rise of 42,934 tons over last year, or over 16 percent. This is more than double our proportionate increase in supply, so that we are not really keeping pace with the growth of our market. Better times in Britain would certainly increase the consumption of butter there, so there is no fear of us over supplying the market. The consumption of butter in the old country seems regulated solely by price, as the income of the mass of the people rises or falls below the butter line. A drop in prices sends the consumption of butter up at once, but of course lowers the return to the producer. A rise in the income of the majority of the people would have the same effect, with the gratifying addition of a rise in prices and in producers’ incomes. Our dairy farmers have therefore every inducement to favour high wages, in Britain at least.