DAIRY PRODUCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20310, 19 January 1928, Page 7

DAIRY PRODUCE.

COMMENTS ON NEW ZEALAND POLICY. DANISH BUTTER PRICES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. The new season’s produce of butter and cheese from New Zealand is being marketed under the important change (says th 6 Glasgow Herald). It will be recalled that the Control Board’s scheme last season, under which reserve prices were fixed for New Zealand produce on th e London market, broke down, and this season there is a reversion practically to the free trading which obtained prior to the introduction of the control scheme. Th e Control Board is still in existence, but its functions lie mainly in arranging for freights and insurance on shipments and in advertising New Zealand produce on the British market. Last week’s announcement from Wellington that the New Zealand Dairy Produce Board has decided to release larger quantities of butter and cheese for export to Great Britain is accepted by merchants here as an indication that the produce will be exported more expeditiously after manufacture. Such a policy, it is stated, would always be desirable, and this season, with its prohibition of preservatives in force, it is the more to be commended. The fresher the butter reaches our consumers the more will they appreciate it. Last year’s control scheme and its failure caused much controversy among New Zealand producers. Merchants here regarded the reserved price policy as an attempt to dictate values to consumers, and they forecasted that this effort would fail, as it did. After several months of comparative neglect of New Zealand butter, the reserved prices were withdrawn, and a policy of orderly marketing (releasing qutoas of butter and cheese over given periods) was resorted to. But even this measure of control has now been removed. PRICE DISPARITY EXPLAINED. It is just possible that the present disparity between the prices ruling for Danish and for New Zealand butter may be misconstrued in New Zealand. It happens that instead of Danish butter being from 6s to 10s per cwt more than New Zealand, the margin in its favour has recently been as much as almost 30s per cwt. New Zealanders who favoured the control scheme might point to this disparity as evidence that the. withdrawal of control was not to the New Zealand producers’ advantage, A Scottish merchant explains that the wide maigin between the two makes of butter is quite accidental. The value of Danish hag been artificially raised by eager buying on the part of Germany, who took about 25 per cent of Denmark’s output. America also has bee n buying Danish butter. That fact may seem strange, as other sources are nearer to America. But every ship going direct from Denmark to the United States, it is said, carries consignments of butter. The Danish product is specially favoured in the States in the making of ice cream and various soft drinks. It is the view of traders here that the exceptional advantage in value enjoyed by Danish butter recently is passand that by the turn of the year the margin between the two classes of butters will have narrowed to norma] dimensions