MARKETING DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1929, Page 8

MARKETING DAIRY PRODUCE.

The experiment of certain New Zealand and Australian co-operative dairy companies entering into an association for marketing their produce will be watched with much interest by all who have any connection with the dairy industry. The prime mover in the new organisation (Mr. W. Goodfellow) has made no secret of his views that there is room for considerable improvement in the marketing system. He was a firm believer in the policy of price fixation and control adopted by the Dairy Board, which is known now to have been a mistaken one. There is much difference, however, between a policy of control by coercion and a voluntary pooling of the output of several factories for marketing purposes. If the shareholders in such factories are willing to take the risk of new methods of marketing they will be entitled to any better returns the new system may bring them. On the other hand, if success is not achieved the experiment will not have injured the whole of the industry in which the Dominion is so vitally interested. The fact that co-operation is to extend from New Zealand to Australian factories is the most novel feature of the new organisation. If it proves a success it may lead to more cooperation between ’ primary producers in the Dominion and in the Commonwealth, They are supplying the same market, often with the same class of commodity, and both have to meet the competition of countries with a much lower standard of living than obtains in Australia and New Zealand. There seems everything to gain from such voluntary co-operation as is indicated in the new dairy produce marketing proposal, always provided it retains its voluntary character. Unless it can prove its merits on that basis the industry will be well advised to leave any such pooling of interests alone, lest the bitter experience of three seasons ago be repeated. There is considerable stir in the political . atmosphere in regard to inter-Dominion and Empire trading. Such arrangements as those now proposed for a portion oi the dairy output may show n way to an increase in Empire trading without raising the various political questions that make any dispassionate discussion of the subject almost impossible.