DAIRYING INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1930, Page 3

DAIRYING INDUSTRY

METHODS OF MARKETING.

VOLUNTARY SCHEME ESSENTIAL

The importance of team work in the marketing of dairy produce was emphasised by Mr. T. C. Brash, secretary of the Dairy Produce Board, in an address at the annual meeting of the South Island Dairy Association at Dunedin on Friday. ’. Mr. Brash said that any scheme aiming at solving this vital problem of the dairying industry must be voluntary as well as national. Absolute control would not settle the difficulty. It had always been a source of deep regret to him that there had not been definitely established one dairy association for the whole Dominion. If that had been done, he believed the history of co-operative development in the dairy industry would have been different.

There had been real team work in tackling the problems in regard to manufacture, said Mr. Brash. The teams of farmers who made up the co-operative dairy companies had never hesitated when improvements had to be made. It was when they came to marketing that the necessary team work had been lacking. All "through the 40 years he had been associated with the industry marketing had been a real problem for discussion at all annual conferences. The most noticeable feature in those discussions had been the spirit of general dissatisfaction regarding marketing, perhaps it would be more correct to say that it was a general anxiety. Producers were anxious that an export trade which had grown in 40 years from a value of £200,000 to £20,000,000 should be' handled on right lines. In outlining a possible scheme of marketing, Mr. Brash said he wished to make it perfectly clear that he was giving his personal opinion for what it was worth. He certainly had no right to try to give the Dairy Board’s view on a problem so full of difficulties. He would say quite frankly that he did not think absolute control would settle the difficulty. The industry had expressed its mind on this question with no uncertain sound. Even if it were possible once, it was certainly not possible now.

There seemed to him to be two essentials. First, any scheme must be voluntary, and, second, it must be a national scheme. There should be room for both consigning and f.o.b. selling factories. An adequate premium for quality for consigning factories should be provided, and this was only possible by the board with its power to make a levy. It was at the other end, however, that they met their greatest difficulties, and any marketing scheme to be successful must be such as would retain the goodwill, not only of the consumers, but of those who acted as intermediaries between the board and the consume?. A dissatisfied salaried employee was nd use in any business, and exactly the same applied when the work was done for commission or profit instead of salary. Whether New Zealand dairy produce was sold through brokers, wholesalers or retailers, the team work he had indicated aS so necessary at this end was equally necessary at the other end. Mr. Brash said he was of the opinion that no hard and fast price-fixing by those who gave the produce to the distributors would ever be effective. It would take from those who sold all initiative, and ,their interest in the produce would decline. The amount given to any distributor should be based on his returns. This, it appeared to him, would effectively meet the position until such time as New Zealand was in a better position than to-day.