QUALITY OF CHEESE

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1932, Page 12

QUALITY OF CHEESE

NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE

SERIOUS LOSS OF TRADE.

COMPLAINTS MADE IN BRITAIN.

London, Sept. 28. The quality of New Zealand cheese is' causing very serious anxiety in London, especially among those who are responsible for the marketing of the Dominion’s exports, says the New Zealand Herald, correspondent. During the last three or four years there has been a positive deterioration in quality, and from isolated and occasional occurrence the injurious defects have developed, in an increasing proportion of the supply, especially that from the North Island, with the result that, the reputation of New Zealand cheese has been gravely prejudiced. New Zealand cheese constitutes about two-thirds of the total imports into Britain and formerly commanded prices virtually equal to those for Canadian.

There must be a substantial reason for the fact that prices for coloured cheese now show a margin of about 6s per cwt in favour of Canadian cheese. The I explanation is that buyers cannot trust New Zealand cheese. It has developed three faults—openness, mould and discolouration—and whatever the cause of these conditions, it is apparently affecting an increasing number of factories. The worst of these defects is that they are internal and are revealed only when the cheese is cut. As a result, the loss arising from the condemnation of a particular cheese falls, in most cases, on the wholesaler, because the defects' are not discovered by the retailer until after the period allowed by the rules of •* the provision trade for the return of the faulty goods to the first vendor. The only defence of the wholesaler is, therefore, to refuse to buy New Zealand cheese, and

that situation has • already 'been approached. Instances could be quoted of large buyers, valuable customers of the Dominion, who have positively refused to take any more of ’ its cheese, and others have warned, the New Zealand authorities that their patience is nearly exhausted. Discussing this critical situation an authority declared that if a firm selling grass-seed treated New Zealand farmers as they are' treating buyers of New Zealand cheese, it would never -sell another pound of seed in the Dominion. The gravity of such ■ a situation cannot be. exaggerated. Nor are the observations in this article extravagant. They are based upon information from sources of unquestionable authority and. of unqualified devotion to the interests of New Zealand dairy farmers. The task of selling the increasing output of New Zealand produce is sufficiently difficult, even , with the assurance of uniformly high quality. The handicap, of positive and. "progressive deterioration such as has occurred in the case of cheese must be removed by the most drastic enforcement of remedial measures.