NEW BUTTER MARKET

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8608, 19 December 1913, Page 8

NEW BUTTER MARKET

ON PACIFIC SLOPE AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION WITH NEW ZEALAND. From Our Special Correspondent. SAN FRANCISCO, November 24. Tlio invasion of Australian butter in America has failed to reduce the high price of tho Californian product, and at San Francisco consumers aro advocating the establishment of Australian stores, where Australian products might be sold as such. Thus they could guarantee to tho public the genuineness of tho imported article instead of having inferior local produce foisted on purchasers and subjecting them to deception, as has been frequently perpetrated in the case of the Australian meat crusade. On© advocate of the inaugurating of ’ Australian stores said : “It does not seem to have occurred to any dealer that it would be a good business proposition to come out in the open and sell Australian butter under a suitable brand. There is a big inquiry among householders as to what this butter is, and where it can be bought, but at retail none, true to label, appears to be procurable. It is being sold very largely to restaurants and hotels. The truth "about tho butter business is that the family trade is usually supplied by butter under the brand of some creamery or some dealer. The number of brands of butter is as the sands of the sea, and the buyer never knows where it comes from, if the dealer s brand is bought. The effect of the Australian butter that has already reached San Francisco has been to hold the price from soaring, and it will probably havo the same effect throughout the winter. With the restaurants and hotels using the imported article, one of tho heavy demands for Californian butter will bo removed.” In the course of an interesting interview at San Francisco, Mr P. E. Quinn, Trade and Immigration Commissioner to tho United States and Canada, representing the New South Wales Government, when asked as to the possibility of the opening of Australian markets in America said: “ There is no possibility of the Australian Government entering into the retail business in tho United States, The only justification would be if there were an absolute boycott of Australian products, which, of course, does not exist now. “ The American consumer is entangled in forms of combination, and commercially cannot be considered free. He resembles a fly in a w*eb, and it will be a giant’s task to extricate him. After all, it has been the result of conditions for which he is himself responsible, and he must work out his own salvation. It would appear that if tho anti-trust legislation forecasted from Washington is enacted relief will be in sight. As yet, many of the corporations, including those controlling food products, have not realised that a new epoch in American industrial and commercial conditions may be about to dawn. When the tariff legislation enacting free meats was passed it was the most obvious thing in the world for some of the big packers to corner tho/space on ships from the Argentine bringing meat into New York. “ Th© United States Government seems to ho determined to-put an end to that device. If personal responsibility is indeed exacted by the new legislation the end may bo in sight. Every combination seems to think it the right thing to take a fall out of the American consumer, and the American producer, too, whenever opportunity offers. In some cases imported meat' is sold in country districts, not perhaps so much for the purpose of relieving a scanty supply, but, there is reason to believe, with tho ulterior object of forcing down the price of cattle locally. Tho farmer, affrighted by the presence of cheaper imported meat, may bo assumed to be willing to sell his stock at a lower price, but that this would mean lower prices to consumer dees not by any means fol-‘ low I “A considerable quantity of butter from New Zealand and Australia has been in tho Californian markets for some weeks, and now a shipment of about 200,000 pounds of New Zealand butter is due in Ban .Francisco, but the local market is very capricious. While the imported butter retailed at first for 70 cents, for a two pound square, it is now 75 cents. New Zealand butter has been selling in some of tho markets at 37 cents, a pound, but tho excuse is offered that it came up ‘sweet,’ and as the locaFpreference is for salted butter it had to be worked over again, this justifying an additional raising of price of. about two cents, more a pound. The local butter, which came down to meet the price of tho imported Australian and Now Zealand butter, is now up again to 34i cents, a pound, and the primest local in cases retailing .at 42 cents, per pound. “Yes, there is an excellent market in America for Australian butter, and tho outlook is that if adequate shipping facilities are provided during the season, Australian butter will bo able to hold its own with New Zealand butter. The quality of the Australian butter is somewhat uneven. Between best Australian butter and Now Zealand butter, in the opinion of local experts, there is very little to choose. “There is a good demand for imported butter, and as for tho Californian consumer his condition might be improved, not by markets established by any Australian Government, but by municipal markets. I asked tho question once in San Francisco as to tho desirability of establishing municipal markets, and at a meeting of the Housewives’ League of America, at its San Francisco branch, the members were addressed on the subject of municipal markets. As an outcome there is every probability of something on the lines of municipal markets being opened. It seems a better device than spasmodic boycotts which are proclaimed from time to time by such bodies as the Housewives’ League. “U Australian butter is to hold its own in America it must bo of the finest grade, and absolutely free from boric acid, with salt as the only preservative.” Mr Quinn added that in Canada Now Zealand butter was now two cents, a pound higher in price than in California, and that an advance to that extent might soon be expected in the United States.