THE BUTTER MARKET

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1638, 7 May 1925, Page 4

THE BUTTER MARKET

DISCUSSED BY N.D.A. The continued low price ruling for £ New Zealand butter on the Home market is no doubt causing many of our members much concern, states the latest circular issued by the National Dairy Association. “We understand many companies have instructed their London agents not to sell consignments under a fixed price. Other companies are with-hold-ing their butter from shipments at this end, pending an improvement in the market, but as the season is now drawing to a close, the question in the minds of many must be: When is the j market going to show an improvement and to such an extent as to allow held quantities to be either sold or shipped?’ “The present unsatisfactory state of the market is no new experience to the industry; the same slump has occurred during the last season or two. The cause and its remedy will, no doubt, be one of the main factors the Dairy Produce Control Board will have to grapple with. “In the past this periodical slump has been attributed to heavy arrivals. In other words, the law of supply and demand. November, December, and January are the three months of the year when our production is greatest; s to reach Great Britain brings us to February, March and April of each year, the period during recent years when low prices have been obtained. It is therefore only natural to assume that excessive arrivals, greater than tlje demand, weaken the market and \ not until supplies commence to diminish can we expect prices to improve.. “At April 30 there were 366 720 boxes of New Zealand butter afloat, that is, in steamers that had actually sailed finally from the Dominion but had not arrived in London. Estimated in store awaiting; shipment and loaded in steamers that had yet to sail, 294,000 boxes, but a considerable quantity, estimated at 65,000 boxes, is meantime withheld from shipment. Perhaps 25 per cent of this held quantity may not find its way to the Home market.”