“NOT THE BEST”

Taranaki Daily News, 10 March 1932, Page 9

“NOT THE BEST”

DOMINION DAIRY PRODUCE NECESSITY OF IMPROVEMENT CRITICISM BY MR. NATHAN INCREASED COMPETITION ‘MONKEYING” WITH CHEESE Strictures on the quality of New Zealand butter and cheese were expressed and the necessity for concentrating -on improving the quality if New Zealand wished to hold its own against ever-, increasing competition was stressed yesterday at the conference of Taranaki dairy factory managers by Mr. F. J. Nathan, Palmerston North, who recently returned from a trip to England. Mr. Nathan, who painted a fairly black picture, at the outset remarked that he would give a few. truths of the position as* it" appeared to those who *sold New Zealand produce and those who consigned it. New Zealanders were still apt to deceive themselves with the belief that they were making the best butter in .the world, but Mr. Nathan would tell them frankly that they never had and, as far as England was concerned, never would. The butter sent from New Zealand certainly: compared very favour/ ably with butter made under similar conditions and sent .over the same distance to the market; that was to say, it compared with Australian butter. The Danish butter as, sold on the English market was, however, much better,, though if the Danes were asked- to make butter that was not to be sold ' until three months later, Mr. Nathan doubted if they would make as good a job as did the New Zealanders. A lot of butters came into England besides Danish, including produce of 1, Sweden, Latvia, Esthonia and Russia. All were good sound butters and as they carried from 4 to 5 per cent, less moisture than did New Zealand buti ter, naturally they were more favoured by the blenders. IMPORTATION FROM RUSSIA. When Mr. Nathan was in England there was a great uproar regarding the importation of Soviet butter. It was pointed out that while butter was being sold at 20s per lb in Moscow, Russian butter was being sold at 98s per cwt in England, or about IDd per lb. The Russians were able to do that only because of the importation (on long-term credits) of margarine from London. • Mr. Nathan had seen Russian butter unloaded at the docks, and had he not ’ . known it was Russian butter would have considered that it was New 'Zea- • land as the boxes and markings were identical. The imports of butter from Russia in 1929 were 1'63,000 cwt, whereas for the ten months of 1931 they reached 334,000 cwt, which was not as great as prior to the war. Mr. Nathan stressed the point, that the competition New Zealand would have from that huge country would-be very formidable in the near future. In view of the facts that the area of Denmark was much smaller than that of the Auckland province and that Denmark had six or seven months' winter, it was interesting to note that-its export of butter—last year 2,300,000 cwt —was increasing each year, while its pork production -was 2,400,00.0 cwt; In butter, bacon and eggs, England imported £’52,000,000 per year, fo- they would realise the efforts put forward ’ by the Danes. People were apt to ask why there was such a difference in--the price of Danish and New Zealand butter. The most important was that the Danish butter landed on the market ps fresh butter and its spreadability’was much greater. It was stated that 31b of New Zealand butter would not go as far as 21b of Danish. For sixty years Denmark had bepn concentrating to suit the requirements. of the market, the shopkeeper and the consumer, ; and it occupied an almost impregnable position in the markets of the north and centre, where Mr. Nathan believed Danish butter was being sold within 48 hours of its manufacture. • DOMINION’S MARKET RESTRICTED. The market for New- Zealand butter, Mr. Nathan pointed out, was becoming narrower and narrower each year. England was now the only market open to it as every other, country, had .'either closed the door or had imposed a high tariff. It . was therefore .absolutelynecessary to ascertain the requirements of that market and to cater for io. Up to the present that had not been done. His hearers might say he was not . a butter-maker, and Mr. Nathan admitted he was hot, but men who dealt in New Zealand butter -said- it -was flat, did not have .a nutty flavour, Jacked character and body. It was for the experts present, who were the heads and brains of the industry, to find how that could be overcome. Australia, which exported 80,000 to 90,000 tons of butter last year, was New Zealand’s outstanding competitor on this side of the world. Australia had the advantage of a bonus of 2d per lb by reason of the Paterson scheme. That, together with the 40s freight to Australia, the advantage of exchange A and lack of boats, was a reason why New Zealand could not sell butter on the Eastern markets. A few years ago it could have been said all confidence that - -New Zealand was making better butter than Australia was, but in the past few years the quality of Australian butter had greatly improved and if New Zealand wished to hold the small premium that it now had over Australian butter it had to watch quality. Mr. Nathan knew one big operator in saltless butter who now. preferred Australian to New Zealand. Admittedly Australia .' was subject to droughts, but given good seasons, the subdivision of some large estates' close to the railways and some encouragement from the Australian Government, Australia could give .very hot competition to New Zealand. “POSITION PRETTY SERIOUS” Mr. Nathan considered the position, was therefore pretty serious; and New Zealand must concentrate on quality in its manufactured article. Competition was all the time becoming greater; South Africa was now the latest to export to Great Britain, certainly only a small quantity, blit it would probably increase. Considerable quantities of butter and cheese were being manufactured in England, no statistics being kept of the amount. There was now an agitation for a duty of 3d per I'b on foreign butter and cheese and Id per lb on New Zealand. If the British farmer could receive some measure of protection his . production qf butter and cheese would go up by leaps and bounds. There were hundreds of thousands of acres in Great Britain that had never been top-dressed, but Mr. Nathan considered that was bound to come, _

The farmers were asking for protection also against condensed and dried milk, as milk in the West was bringing only 6d per gallon. Mr. Nathan was therefore greatly concerned that the quality of New Zealand produce should not be allowed to slip. In that direction the managers would receive all possible support from the Dairy Division' and their directors. Recently he had spoken of the unwar-ranted-interference of the directors with the managers, but he was satisfied that managers generally were now given a free' hand.

Mr. Nathan ■ also severely criticised the quality of some New Zealand 'cheese. He recognised that the bulk of New Zealand cheese was of good quality, but there was a minority that left much to be desired,- and that regulated the price of the whole as all the cheese was regarded as New Zealand eheese. When in England Mr. Nuthan had seen New Zealand cheese retailed at 6< per lb and when he told them that the landed cost was 14s per cwt, they could understand that the New Zealand, producer would receive a price at which it would not pay him to produce. CRITICISM IN BRITAIN. What were the reasons for that low price? Could they not be rectified? Mr. Nathan held that it was due to. the quality. He instanced his experience with shopkeepers and assistants who complained that it cut so “open” and quickly dried, the opinion being expressed that- New Zealand cheese was not nearly as good as it used to be and was not as good as Canadian. He had not heard anyone say they objected to waxed cheese,- though he had seen cases due to carelessness at the factories where too much wax had been used, in one instance 3Mb being on the cheese instead of 3£oz. ..... , Mr. Nathan did not favour individual brands owing to the difficulty of pronouncing New Zealand names. The definite judgment in England, Mr. Nathan affirmed, was all against New Zealand cheese. The men at Tooley Street were out to obtain the best returns for the produce, but the producer was not giving them a chance as he had been “monkeying” with the produce and sending some rubbish. That rubbish used to be kept in New Zealand for local consumption, but too much had been made. There were complaints of dirty flavour, lack of cheddar flavour and lack of maturity. He had been asked to appeal to the Government not to allow any cheese to be exported until it had been in the curing room for from four to six weeks, but he had pointed out the difficulties factories would be faced with in regard to finance if such a regulation were introduced. Mr. Nathan had seen cheese after it had been cut 48 hours; it showed all the colours of the rainbow and was full of holes and cracks. He had seen cheese graded second here come out first grade in England, and vice-yersa.. He was not blaming the grading officials as they were being asked to do an impossible thing when they were asked to take curd 14 days, old and say what it would be like in three months, particularly when there were men out to beat them air the time. ( 'i A cheesemaker with a regenerative pasteuriser would not keep the temperature down if it were necessary to rmove the feed flavour and such from the milk. That flavour could remain out during the 14 days prior to the curd going to the grading store, but by the time the cheese reached England, the feed and dirt flavours would have developed.-->»lf the milk was .over-pas-teurised 'beyond laOdeg. they would have bitterness/ Until they overcame these troubles, New Zealanders would receive less for their cheese than did Canada. . EFFECT ON GOOD CHEESE. Mr. Nathan made it clear that he was not damning the whole of the cheese, as quite a lot of it was good, but the few tons of bad cheese were used to 'bring down the price of the good. ' ' - 1 - - The question was how to overcome the difficulty. Since standardising had been stopped and there had been such a terrible fall in price there had been a big improvement in quality, the body being- definitely, better- and the -.flavour cleaner. Mr. Nathan would go further and advocate the compulsory grading of milk for bheese-making as well as of cream. He believed the factories were advocating a compulsory system of grading and the Minister of Agric Iture had told him regulations were to be introduced, but he considered unless they went a -step further and tied the supplier to a factory for a year the scheme would ■be a failure, as a supplier not satisfied with his grading could go to ' another factory. Mr. Nathan considered that neither the directors nor the supporters of companies, knew, the meaning of . co-opera-tion;, otherwise they would not have the directors of one'factory appealing to'suppliers. dissatisfied at'a cheese factory to instql a. separator, and -s§nd the cream to?their factory, as was done in some cases. , , ... When milk grading was introduced the. factory manager should first be made absolutely conversant with the system, which should be efficient and easily operated besides appealing to the suppliers, to whom the 'manager should demonstrate that it is absolutely fair. Mr. Nathan considered that any trial of the scheme made by the department should extend into the spring of the year because little trouble should be experienced at present. He stressed the point that no supplier should be allowed to take his milk away from a factory during the . season unless with the consent of the directors, though a court of appeal might be provided if he were dissatisfied. That might be considered interfering with the liberty of the subject, but the minority must always bow to the majority. They would never overcome troubles until they had control of the milk, which would enable them to do away with a lot of pasteurising. Mr. Nathan would not advocate doing away with it altogether, but the temperature must be controlled. ARBITRATION COURT AWARD. Another serious factor in the deterioration of the quality, Mr. Nathan held, was the Arbitration Court award. It was utterly impossible to make cheese in 8 hours, and the manager who did it was at the bottom of the trouble, as the making had been hurried. Mr. Nathan did not blame the directors for not wishing to' pay overtime if the next factory was not paying it. He held that it took at least 10 hours per day to make the cheese and if anyone objected to a 70-hour week he should keep out of the industry as before joining he knew the wages and conditions, together with the prospects of being a manager later. Temperatures in the curing room had to be controlled. Mr. Nathan knew of one case in which the temperature was as low as 48deg. in the spring and as high as Sfldeg in the summer. Dozens of rooms ranged up to 75deg. and 80deg. in the summer. That was extraordinarily bad for cheese. He knew it was not possible for factory directors to face the expenditure necessary to have a controlled temperature all the year, but steps could be taken to bripg it up to 50 or 55deg in the spring and keep it down a little in the summer. They had certainly to put their house in order. Mr. Nathan suggested. that there should be two grades of butter and that

all others - should be marked “pastry,” as that would prevent the possibility of whey butter being sold in England as first-class butter. In concluding Mr.. Nathan expressed the. hope that,he would be able .to' say later that New Zealand made the best cheese in the world. MANAGERS’ QUERIES. ' Mr. W. J. Honeyfield (Patua) considered that the waxing of the cheese was inclined to keep in the b-d flavours. Mr. Nathan said producers saved from 1 to per cent, shrinkage by 'waxing the cheese, so he did r.->c. see why all should be penalised to that extent because some cheese contained bad flavour. Cheese containing bad flavours should not be waxed. Mr. L. J. Rundle asked wh- ther the fact that New Zealand’s export of cheese had doubled in the past few years whereas Canada’s had be< reduced by half might not -be the main cause of the premium that Canadian cheese now obtained. Mr. Nathan agreed that might be so, but he added that Canadian cheese “pointed” better than New Zealand and had a definite market,' Mr. G. Hall (Okato) asked whether Mr. Nathan had heard any adverse reports of the flavour of Canadia cheese. Mr. Nathan said he had heard nothing but favourable comments about Canadian matured cheese.- It was, of course, possible that some might not K up to the mark. He recognised chat now New Zealand was exporting so much cheese, which was being eaten by hundreds of thousands of people, they could expect more criticism than was the case years ago, but he emphasised the fact that in talking of the quality of New Zealand cheese he was not exaggerating the position oue iota.