DAIRY PRODUCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21197, 1 December 1930, Page 10

DAIRY PRODUCE.

LONDON INTERESTS MEET. HOPEFUL OF THE FUTURE. PRICE-FIXING DISAPPROVED. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 29. Ibe Dairy Produce Exporters’ Association has received the following cablegram irom the Dairy Importers’ Association. London:— ’ "At a meeting of the association on Wednesday, at which there* were present hy invitation representatives of Amalgamated Dairies and the Dairy Board, tiie following memoranda and resolutions were submitted and agreed to:—A sub-commit-tee ot the association has met frequently to discuss and explore the position of the markets in New Zealand butter and cheese and .in its review is of opinion that the original cause of the present depression wa j U P of stocks last spring and tiie consequent increase in the retail price curtailing consumption and making the retailers ' unwilling to follow except at. a distance the drop in importers’ prices. This continued throughout the summer, leading to an accumulation of stocks which could not all be disposed of before the new season’s supplies arrived. Ihe production of New Zealand and the greatly increased production of Australia led to conditions necessitating a drastic tall in the retail prices to bring the demand into hue with the supply. This is gradually taking place, and notwithstanding the large increase anticipated from New Zealand owing to the diversion of butter formerly going to Canada and the enormously increased production of Ausooks t* lo present moment as though the market will gradually get to a Bound, healthy basis regulated entirely by supply and demand. We must not overlook, however, the large proportion of unemployed and the world’s general economic position. “ T ke sub-committee recommended that an advertising campaign should be started to induce wholesalers and retailers to stock and push the sale of New Zealand butter at the present time. It also recommended that a petition should be -prepared and presented to the Government pointing out the disastrous conditions occasioned to. New Zealand farmers owing to the low prices for dairy produce and asking that a tax should be imposed on foreign foodstuffs for the benefit of the Dominion producers. The sub-committee suggests an active press campaign to teach the housewife the benefits of New Zealand butter, which can be bought at an exceptionally low level. The Price Committee has also given consideration to the question of pneefixing and ‘ pegging,’ or any artificial method regulating the demand, and in view of the disastrous experience of the Canadian wheat pool, Irish butter control, and the Scottish milk pool, it is convinced that any artificial interference with the open market would accentuate rather than help the present position. To carry out the resolutions a committee has been formed from the association with the addition of Mr J. B. Wright, of Amalgamated Dairies.”