LOCAL BUTTER PRICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17754, 13 April 1921, Page 8

LOCAL BUTTER PRICES.

NEW MOVE IN DUNEDIN.

WHOLESALE RATES RAISED.

POSITION OF.THE RETAILER. [BV TELEGRAPH. —OWN COIIUESI'ONDENtt'.J DUNEDIN, Tuosday. Tho butter trade is a ceaseless worry to all engaged in it. Tho latest develop-* ment is the issuing of a circular from the wholesale firms to tho Dunedin retailers notifying that tho wholesale prico is advanced to 2s ljd per lb. net. Tho factory managers eay they are driven to this increase of prico because they have to buy from the Imperial Supply Department through tho Government at 2a ex store and tho scHing chargo that was previously fixed at 2s per lb. does' not pay the expense of freight, patting, and delivery. Their case is quite clear, but what about tho retail grocers? They cannot pass on the id advance einoo the Ordcr-in-Council compels them to Bell at 2s 3d. All that they get now for retailing is li|d per lb. Tho now arrangement is hard ou them. A conference is to bo lield on the subject at Wellington to-morrow between tho Prime Minister and the factory managers in the hope of coming to a fair and workable understanding. . Mr. S. Bowman, managing director of tho Waitaki Dairy Co., started this morning for Wellington to attend that conference, One of the troubles seems to bo that the North Island producers will not or cannot quote and in consequence tho South Island factories are driven for their supplementary supplies to the Imperial Supply Department which body says in justification of the chargo of 2s tliat it is Id per lb. below the present da»y commercial value of butter in tho open market. The. whole situation is beset with difficulty.