PRICE OF BUTTER.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 September 1920, Page 8

PRICE OF BUTTER.

FROM 1/9 TO 2/10? ~ * EFFECT OF OPEN MARKET UPON RETAIL PRICE. "The position regarding the future .price o£ butter to the consumer is still uncertain," stated the. manager of one of the largest export produce firms to a Wellington Times reporter. "It all depends on what 'the Government decide to do. The dairy farmer naturally wants the full market price for'his produce, and it cannot be denied that he is entitled to get it. As is generally known, the Government subsidised the dairy farmer in order that he would not be a loser on market values, and also that the consumer might purchase butter at Is 9d per lb. The question now is whether the Government is going to continue that subsidy or declare the market an open one, and no doubt the report of the Parliamentary Committee that is_ now sitting will have a direct bearing as to what action will eventually be taken. "The stock of butter purchased by the Government is running out, and the supply available is only sufficient for about three weeks."

"What about this season's supplies?" inquired the reporter. "I am only referring to last season's supplies," replied the merchant, "as no arrangement has been made regarding the new season's output. The butter from the various dairy. factories since the commencement of the present season is not going on to the market, but is being stored in the cool chambers. "The retail price of butter, fixed by the Imperial authorities in England, is 3s per lb, and <there is no doubt that the price will have to be raised. The f.o.b. price that has been made for Australian butter is approximately 2s per lb and 2s Cd per lb for the New Zealand article. It will then readily be seen that to sell butter at 3s per lb in London would result in a loss, as freight and other charges have to be added to the contract price; in addition there is the wholesaler's as well as a t]ie retailer's profit to be accounted tor, and administration expenses. On Tuesday the Butter Committee is to meet to ratify the Imperial contract for butter, and if the Government should decide upon an open' market the retail price of butter in the Dominion will probably advance from Is 9d to 2s lOd per lb." In conclusion, the expert said that the dairy farmer was the hardest worked man in the Dominion, and it would be, or should be, admitted that he was entitled to obtain the best price he could for the produce from his farm. The dairy farmer, he added, had been singled out for unfair attack by a certain section of .the community, and it was absolutely ridiculous to-contend that he was a profiteer. The price of his produce was governed by the market, and he had "no hope of profiteering, even if such were his desire.

DISSATISFIED PRODUCERS. HEW ZEALAND PRODUCE IN BRITAIN. A letter is published in the London Times of August sth from Mr. T. C. Brash, secretary of the New Zealand Butter and Cheese Exporters' Committee, in which he controverts the statement made by another correspondent. Mr. Brash attests the grave dissatisfaction of New Zealand producers, declares that the Ministry of Food made a profit of four million pounds in New Zealand butter and cheese, and during the present summer that a free market has jjeen; given to English, Scottish, and ]>;.<* butter and cheese, but that New Zealand had been refused this. In respect of the apple trade, he asserts that the Sow Zealand orchardist has been making only a penny half-penny per pound on his London sales. New Zealand does not complain, he says. But now the producers in the Old Country aTe being given a free market in apples, while at the same time the Food Ministry announce* the re-imposition of control on apples in November. What says Mr Brash, have Now Zealand and Australia done to deserve this? One prominent member of the butter and cheese advisory committee, he says, filled the treatment of New Zealand , "damnable."