NEW ZEALAND BUTTER IN ENGLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND BUTTER IN ENGLAND

EMPIRE MARKETING BOARD’S SURVEY IN ENGLISH MIDLANDS New evidence that the consumption of New Zealand butter is on the increase appears - in a report lately published by the Empire Marketing Board on “ Changes in the Demand for Butter. This deals with two surveys undertaken in the city of Nottingham by the board s officers, the first in July, 1928, and the second three years later, in July, 1931. During this period, the sales of New Zealand butter increased by 25 per cent. The percentage of all types of Empire butter sold rose from 24 to 27 per cent. Danish butter accounted for 61 per cent, of the total in the first survey, and 58 per cent, in the second. , At the time of the first survey, i6cwt of New Zealand butter was being sold every week. By 1931 this figure had risen to 95cwt. Nottingham citizens, in fact, were eating more butter, and more of the butter they ate came from New Zealand. . The increased consumption of butter coincided, of course, with a heavy fall in prices. * During the three years between the surveys the average retail price 'of butter fell from Is 9d per lb to Is 3d per lb. This represented a price decline of 30 per cent., and was accompanied by a rise in sales of IS per cent. The number of shops stocking New Zealand butter rose between the first and second surveys. Nottingham was chosen as a typical cross-section of the English market. It is situated in a “ no-man’s land ” between three camps—the London area, where New Zealand and Australian butter holds sway; the West Coast ports, where the Irish butter arrives; and the East Coast ports, which are the stronghold of Danish gutter. The surveys were based on personal interviews with 181 retailers.