DAIRY PRODUCE OUTLOOK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22240, 15 October 1935, Page 8

DAIRY PRODUCE OUTLOOK

When, early in the export season, dairy produce prices began to show signs of improvement, there was a natural disposition to accept the movement very cautiously. A long period of extreme depression in this market had effectively quenched any disposition to be unduly optimistic about prospects. The good that the immediate increase brought was accepted thankfully enough, but nobody cared to count on the chances of the rise either going further or lasting for any considerable time. Even now, when the level reached far outstrips the most optimistic forecast anybody would have cared to make three months ago, long range forecasts of a continuance are lacking, and for very good reason. Yet there is enough permanence in the improvement to assure the dairy farmer against the fear of a sudden and disastrous collapse at short notice. Buying for future delivery at improved rates has been a reassuring feature of the position. Now comes a statement from London to the effect that Toole.v Street considers nothing can stop New Zealand and Australian butter from going still higher. This is pleasing information, though the possibility of levels being reached which will definitely affect consumer demand, and leave the way open for butter's great rival, margarine, has to be counted. However, the stock position is sound by comparison with the figures a year ago. A very significant development is the increased Continental demand, reducing the pressure of European supplies on the British market. How long this will last it is not possible to say, but in the meantime the New Zealand dairy farmer has the benefit of a relaxation of those restraints on trade which did so much to impair his market. Neither he nor anyone else can estimate the prospects very far ahead, but at the moment he is being given a measure of encouragement for which he has waited patiently and all too long.