DAIRY INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

DAIRY INDUSTRY

AUSTRALIAN BUTTER. CONTROL OF EXPORT. An important development in the marketing of Australian butter has occurred. It involves a change of policy which will atejet exports from all the states. The Dairy Produce Export Board sent notices to exporters last month, stating that, after two weeks, 20 per cent of the weekly exports would' be held back for shipment later in the season When production is smaller. This is designed to spread the volume of exports more equally over the season, and to enable agents handling Australian butter in England to preserve continuity of supply. The plan has been under consideration for some weeks, and its execution followed upon the presentation to members of the Dairy Produce Export Board, at its meeting in Sydney recently, of a report by Mr. H. E. Fowell, the Tasmanian member of the Board, who has just returned from London. Mr. Fowell stressed the importance of bringing Australian exporters more closely in, touch with the consumers. At present, he said, most of the butter shipped from Australia was taken up by large merchants, who used it for blending and most of it lost its identity before it reached the public. This method of marketing was almost forced upon Australia because of the market’s seasonal fluctuations in the quantity of butter available. Unless consumers could' obtain Australian butter all the year round, it was almost impossible to create retail demand for it.

By holding back 20 per cent, of the export surplus from now on, exports will be spread over the autumn and summer months, when the production of butter is limited, and thus the seasonal fluctuation in supplies will be minimised. It is planned that the butter held up each week should be shipped in the week following, when it will be replaced with fresh butter. Thus an accumulation of supplies will be gradual, and no stale butter will remain at the end of the season. Exporters are aware of the danger of attempts at the control of marketing, but they are satisfied the plan adopted will be beneficial because it is limited to the regulation of supplies and does not envisage the deliberate storing of butter with the purpose of causing a rise in prices.