THE BUTTER MARKET

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17230, 9 April 1930, Page 6

THE BUTTER MARKET

THE FURTHER FALL DAIRYMEN ASK, WHAT NEXT? Although butter prices are not yet so low as wool values, the further decline announced this week has made farmers wonder what is going to happen, next. For a short time the market appeared to be steady between l£os ahd loOs, and it was believed by some that the lowwater mark had been reached, but the drop registered at the' end of last week came as a surprise to many. Giving the London prices on April 7 as 122 s to 1245, Messrs. Leonard and Son, Auckland, comment that the demand is very slow on a declining market, which is expected to decline still further. • "The further the market goes down, the sooner we can look for a substantial increase," was the philosophic comment of Mr. J. H. Sunderland, secretary of the Kia Ora Co-flperative Dairy Co., Ltd., this morning. The lower retaiP prices induced by a low market should tend to stimulate the demand sufficiently to make the market more animated, and when the level which would induce such a demand was reached a fairly rapid improvement might be expected The present it was added, were below the average cost of production in the district. It would be difficult to gauge what the average in this respect would be, but Mr Sunderland thought it might be put down at between Is 2d and Is 3d pet' lb. of butterfat. Some men with good cows, however, might be able to make a living at Is per lby, while much depended upon the season. As he indicated last week, Is per lb. on butterfat supplied last month would be more than equal to the Is 3d paid out by his company for March butterfat in 1929, for last month there was a large increase in production. Dairymen, therefore, would be able to stand lowprices better in a season of plenty, such as this, than during one of comparatively low production