ALTERNATIVE MARKETS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 10

ALTERNATIVE MARKETS

In viewing the changed outlook for New Zealand dairy produce in the British market some people are too ready to take the attitude of the defeatist. Passivity is the worst mood that can overtake the producers at this difficult stage. They should be encouraged to carry on, heartened by the knowledge that their leaders are making every effort to keep open existing outlets and to discover new ones. That is the active and constructive mood that should be steadily opposed to those who are asking what is the use of productive progress and supplying deadening answers. Hence, the announcement by Mr. Forbes that definite steps are being taken to discover new markets is to be welcomed. In the past New Zealand has been too inclined to depend solely on the one market, and too ready to find excuses why others could not be developed. Either that, or too prone to talk about prospects and potentialities and too unenterprising to exploit them. The "definite steps" have tarried. Now, it may be hoped, purposive action is to commence. It is certainly not too soon, since the Ottawa agreement, under which New Zealand dairy produce enjoys free and unlimited entry to Britain, will expire in August of next year. The Dominion has a short breathing-space aud should use it to the utmost advantage. It is true that marketing connections and organisation are things of slow growth, and so is consumer demand, but to make the beginnings of some alternatives will be worth while. Apparently it needed a shipment of oranges from Jamaica to direct New Zealand eyes to the market in the West Indies. And in discussing the prospect in the Far East one contender declared it was of little account because Australia managed to sell only 5000 tons of butter there annually. He overlooked the fact that in no more than a generation sales of New Zealand butter in Britain have increased from 5000 tons to 100,000 tons. In the search for new markets care should be taken to see that the investigators arc practical men, salesmen and traders. Some suggestion has been made in Wellington that a Ministerial representative be sent to the East and elsewhere, but such a mission is not likely to prove useful. The trader, not the politician, should be sent after trade. Nor can any advantage be seen at the present stage in the suggested Ministerial mission to Britain on dairy problems. There again the best plan would be to send the trader and the salesman to study the existing market and the consumer, so as to , make the most of what will always be the Dominion's chief outlet. The thing to do now is to put politics and quotas on one side and to set to work simply as sellers to find new markets and improve existing ones.