DAIRYING IN ARGENTINA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23401, 18 July 1939, Page 8

DAIRYING IN ARGENTINA

A New Zealander, returned to the Dominion after spending 16 years in Argentina, advises his fellowcountrymen to watch that country as a possible competitor in the British butter market. The warning should not be taken lightly. Competition in the United Kingdom is already fierce. New Zealand has to fight hard enough as it is to maintain a position gained by years of intensive effort, and the appearance of another serious rival would add to a strain that is sufficiently great. Moreover, the reputation Argentina holds as a producer of beef, mutton and lamb suggests that dairying on a much larger scale than exists at present might very well be a further development of grassland farming. However, while the possibilities of greater production have to be accepted as consistent with the known evidence, the British market no longer lies open for exploitation at the will of any country which sees there an opportunity for profitable business. Argentina knows this because of the quota restrictions that have already been put on chilled beef, and even more stringently on mutton and lamb. The regulation of supplies that Denmark has had to accept for her longestablished trade in butter is a significant trend in the same direction. Argentina is not yet a serious factor in the butter market. Imports to Great Britain for the year ended June 30, 1938, were only 3285 tons, against 140,000 tons sent by Now Zealand, according to figures the Dairy Board has issued. The amount was abnormally low, but over the past 10 years the average quantity from Argentina has been little more than 11,000 tons. British agricultural policy at present does not promise much encouragement to any substantial increase in this small entry.