FINDING NEW MARKETS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20819, 11 March 1931, Page 7

FINDING NEW MARKETS.

BUTTER AND FROZEN MEAT,

FIELD IN DUTCH EAST INDIES. CHANCE FOR NEW ZEALAND. ! " There is no reason why New Zealand j butter and frozen meat should not have a good chance in t'.ie extensive market provided by the Dutch East Indies," said Mr. J. do Kuyper, ,a partner in the Dutch gin distilling firm o"f Johs de Kuyper and Zoon, who is visiting Auckland. " New Zealand exporters will find the people good business men and absolutely open-minded when it comes to importations. They are staunch believers in the principle of 'Let the best man win.' "

The Dutch East Indies, said Mr. de Kuyper, obtained 60 per cent, of their butter from Australia, depending on the Netherlands for the remainder. " The fact that Holland, although a great dairying country, cannot compete with Australia in the East Indian market, should point the way to New Zealand's opportunity," he said, " for New Zealand butter is superior to Australian in quality, vou have a lower basic wage, making competition easier, and freights should not be higher. The consumption of butter by Europeans and Chinese is very substantial, providing a market well worth having.

" I have travelled a great deal in the Dutch East Indies, yet I cannot ever remember a single New Zealand firm active there. Naturally, vou must show your faces before you can hope t6 do business, but once there you will find you will be very well treated." Mr. de Kuyper expressed the opinion that New Zealand could import, in return, larger quantities of Dutch tea than were coming into the Dominion at present. Heavier importations of tea and other commodities would bo a decided inducement to reciprocity. It was purely because of the drop in the prices of the products of the Dutch colonies that Holland was suffering from depression at present. Her home industries were flourishing.

" Although I have not been in New Zealand long, I have seen sufficient to convince mo that it will be one of the first countries to surmount the present period of depression," said Mr. de Kuyper. 14 You appear to face a problem more energetically than Australia; you have more of what I would call the fighting spirit,'. It has been very noticeable in the matter of the Hawke s Bay earthquake. When I remarked to a Wellington business man, ' I suppose you will be going to England for a loan to meet reconstruction in Napier and Hastings, he said, 'No, we will try and raise the money ourselves first,' which seemed the right independent spirit and typical of everything I have seen in this country. •'