QUALITY PRODUCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21498, 23 May 1933, Page 8

QUALITY PRODUCE

Throughout the dairy industry there seems to be general recognition of the need for a comprehensive forward movement toward higher and more uniform quality standards. Since New Zealand established her reputation in the London dairy market, competition has become keener and wider, and it is almost necessary to re-establish that reputation. Whether times are good or bad, whether quotas are imposed or not, whether tariffs give permanent Empire preference or not, quality will always command its place in the inarket and a premium in the price field. In the butter trade Denmark enjoys a number of advantages by reason of its proximity to Great Britain, but much of its strength is due to organisation, which enables the product to be shipped with fair regularity over the twelve months of the year, and ensures a high standard of uniformity in the matter of flavour, colour, packing and grade. These merits have made the Danish market. If the industry is to prosper in New Zealand and expand when normal economic conditions return, it must strive to improve on these lines. The country is admirably suited for dairying, but the best natural conditions will not produce the best products. From farm to factory, from factory to ship, from ship to the stores of the importing countries there must be efficient management. There must be painstaking care at every stage of the process of manufacture and distribution. The adversity of these days is a stimulating factor, and it is a most encouraging indication of the spirit of progress in the industry to find the new dairy regulations, which for the most part aim at a higher average standard in cheese, promptly approved by Mr. C. J. Parlane, who speaks for the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy (jom-

pany, the largest concern of the kind in the Empire. These will impose some restraints upon individual freedom, but solely in the interests of the dairy farmer and of the country generally. The grading of milk with price penalties for neglect should have far-reaching results. Already important steps have been taken to safeguard the market. The export of standardised cheese, that is cheese manufactured from milk from which part of the cream is extracted, has been prohibited. The sale of whey butter has been controlled to prevent it reaching the market and being sold to the detriment of the bette? grades. Now come the new regulations and with them what may be called a national "drive" for quality. The industry is well equipped scientifically. The Dairy Research Institute, controlled by Professor Riddet, is the central organisation with which several laboratories work in conjunction. The farmer must co-operate and the factories must rigidly apply the regulations to force the neglectful to improve their methods.