OUTLOOK FOR BUTTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 8

OUTLOOK FOR BUTTER

LONDON MARKET REVIEWED. NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN. Despite the heavy fall in the price of New Zealand butter on th e English market, merchants handling dairy produce deprecate alarm. It was only by comparison with what the market had been for the last few months that the latest prices appear so low, explained an expert to the Hamilton representative of the N.Z. Herald, when discussing the situation. “We have had a wonderful run,” he said. “Butter prices have been really high all the season. A price of 170 s per cwt. in England represents about Is 4d. per lb- f.o.b. hero, so that the price is not even down to the pre-war level Every hope is entertained that th e market has seen its bottom and probably will recover somewhat.”

Proceeding, the expert said that the present fall had not approached that which occurred during the season 1921-22, at one stage of which butter was selling in London at from 120 s to 130 s. There wa s nothing abnormal at this end. The abnormality was at the other end in the form of a tem porary oversupply of butter due to over-shipments arriving within a short period. The dislocation of business caused by the recent dockers’ strike would also be a faclor. The heaviest shipments of produce were reaching England at this period in the year Whenever there was an excess of supnly there was invariably a lowering of values- On the other hand, when supplies were scarce, as was the case at present with Danish butter, prices would rise to a high level. No heavy stock s of butter were lying in New Zealand ’at present.

Shipments had gone forward very regularly, it was remarked, and for the remainder of the season, conditions should b 0 quite normal. Impending shipments would probably be equal to autumn shipments of previous seasons. The reason for so great a disparity between New Zealand and Danish prices was ascribed to the probable fact tht Denmark, having an opportunity of "selling a good deal of its produce to Continental customers, had been left with insufheient butter to meet the demands of regular customers in England—the people who would hav e Danish butter year in and year out, no matter what the price might be.