MARKETING OF DAIRY PRODUCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13745, 7 September 1908, Page 7

MARKETING OF DAIRY PRODUCE.

THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM.

AN ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORTER.

There is an important combination of co-operative dairy companies m NewSouth Wales which recently .sent to London its general manager, Mr C. E. D. Aleares. Mr Meares has returned an enthusiastic supporter of the cooperative marketing principle. He gave his views to a Sydney Telegraph reporter.

SELLING CONCENTRATION WANTED.

In tho first place, asserted Mr Moaros, the butter is in too many hands, and there is urgent need for concentration of sales. At present it is no one firm's duty to study or advance the interests of producers on this side. On the contrary, tho majority o* the firms are speculators or dealers in Australian and Siberian butters, and -t<l^ market rate for one is frequently iKod as a lever to depress or inflate the price of the other. There is a general irresponsibility of price-fixing and too frequent fluctuation of Values, which — though it may be helpful or profitable to the speculative element — is highly detrimental to tho best interests of New South Wales producers. The dairy farmers of Australia, he says, will never obtain tho true value of their butter and choose until Fhe whole business is confined to the fow, firms which aro prepared to conduct a legitimate agency business.

CO-OPERATIVE CONTROL

"By continuous co-operative organising," said Mr Meares, "tho abuses of the speculative agency system existent in this State, and also Victoria, have boon materially reduced. Proprietarysellers aro now subservient to the cooperative control of the market." Hr considers that history must repeat itself in London, and that this would be reasonably easy of achievement in tho direct consignment by co-operative factories, accompanied by representation of tho co-operative selling companies in Tooley Street by men of undoubted integrity and experience of the business in hand. These representatives from this and other States, by the "unwritten law of a common interest/ would practically constitute a commercial committee to safeguard the interests of producers, acting .in concert with tho selected soiling agents in the better regulation of market rates for Australian goods. PRODUCERS CAN FIX VALUES.

"The power of fixing prices on any market," he wont on to say, "rests not with any firm or its banking account, but in the produce itself. . Now that producers of this State have grasped this fundamental truth, and are determined to retain control of their produce until its sale to retailers, the better government of London values during tho Australian season is merely a matter of co-operative organising by the loaders of tho movement on this side. Tho Coastal Farmers' Co-operative Society, embracing as it does*co-opera-tive interests now amounting in turnover to three-quarters of a million sterling per annum, is a fitting medium to carqjr through such reform on behalf" of the dairymen of this State. A strong co-operative man with commercial experience is being selected to act for tho society in London. Hijs duties will be manifold. Primarily his daily presence in the market will transfer to this end the fullest possible information in regard to the trend of prices. Working in conjunction with the soiling agent, his mfluence will be used towards the maintenance and bettor regulation of prices." Mr Mearei? expresses his intention of next month interviewing the directors of " a large number of co-operative factories, giving the result of his investigations in Great Britain and on the Continent, while simultaneously placing before them a working srheme for the better conduct of tho season's export business.