DAIRY PRICES RISING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 10

DAIRY PRICES RISING.

ANOTHER TWO SHILLINGS.

ACTIVE DEMAND IN LONDON. FINEST BUTTER VERY SCARCE. A further improvement in the prices for New Zealand butter and cheese on the London market is "reported in cable messages received from London yesterday. Both butter and cheese have registered another advance of 2s a cwt., and finest is reported to be very scarce. At Glasgow the market for butler has advanced to 1225, a rise of 9s a cwt. in a week. At that, price the return f.o.b. Auckland is 12.45 d a lb. It is reported that the markets continue active and that a higher price level than that of the last 12 months is expected while the present financial situation continues. The retention of the gold standard in Canada bus resulted in a rapid advance in the price of Canadian cheoso. Merchants have received the following cablegrams from their London houses:— Dalgety and Company, Limited, September 26:—Butter: Prices 2s a cwt. higher; New Zealand finest grade, salted, now 118s Co 120s. Cheeso: Prices 2s a cwt. dearer; New Zealand, white, now 66s to 68s: coloured, now 66s to 68s. Joseph Nathan and Company, Limited, September 26:—Butter: Finest very scarce, nominal 120s; first, 116s to 117s; the market is firm. Cheese: Market very firm, closing at 70s. Canadian prices have advanced rapidly on account of tlie retention of the gold standard in Canada. Leonard and Son, Limitod, September 25:—Butter, 118s to 120s. Cheese: White and coloured, 68s to 70s. Both markets are advancing and active. The outlook is for an altogether higher price level than the last 12 months while the present financial situation continues. Deliveries of cheese: New Zealand and Australian, 23,817 crates; Canadian, 13,164 boxes. Stock: New Zealand and Australian, 64,928 crates; Canadian, 234,499 boxes. Nordcn and Company, Limited (from Glasgow), September 25: —Butter: The market is firm and dearer following an active demand, 118s to 122s a cwt., equivalent to 12.45 d a lb. f.o.b. Auckland. Cheese: The market is firmer, 66s to 70s, equivalent to 6.45 d a lb. f.o.b. Auckland. CONDITIONS IN LONDON. BUSINESS WITH THE EAST. [FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON, Monday. " The London butter market, like most commodity markets, has been unsettled by the political and financial condition of Europe," said Mr. W. Goodfellow, managing director of Amalgamated Dairies, Limited, in a statement to the suppliers of tho New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Limited. Fortunately, he added, the smaller arrivals of New Zealand butter kept quotations fairly steady during the past month. The total stocks of butter in the United Kingdom on August 31 amounted to 22.900 tons, of which New Zealand butter comprised under 6000 tons. These figures were below the August stocks of the last two years and indicated a healthy demand. Imports into Great Britain from all sources for the eight months ended August 31 totalled 272,628 tons, an increase of nearly 5000 tons a month over the corresponding periods of the previous two years, indicating the tremendous capacity of the British markets. A substantial portion of this increase had been at the expense of margarine, the -prices for which had been held up owing to longterm contracts for oils made when prices were considerably higher than they were at present.

Business with Eastern countries was very difficult for New Zealand and was not likely to improve while Australia held liei' present great advantage in exchange. The Asiatic countries had all been badly hit by the present trade depression and their purchasing capacity seriously reduced. A surplus of Japanese butter, for instance, was being dumped into North China, and even Australian butter could not compete with it in that area. Generally speaking, New Zealand was steadily losing a valuable dairy produce business throughout the Orient, the Pacific and in Honolulu, due entirely to the very big advantage Australia had in the matter of exchange, which amounted to over 2d per lb. on butler. Shipments of cheese from New Zealand in August amounted to 2513 tons, compared with 3180 tons in August last year. The estimated slocks in the United Kingdom at August 31 were 15,352 tons, a few hundred tons more than last year, but shipments afloat and stocks in New Zealand were 1500 tons less, so that the statistical position was fairly sound. The milk powder and casein markets were unchanged.