RUSSIAN BUTTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 81, 6 April 1934, Page 9

RUSSIAN BUTTER

CO-OPERATIVES' PURCHASES BLEND WITH EMPIRE PRODUCT LONDON, February 27. The Daily Express continues its campaign against the co-operative traders by a reference to their use of Russian butter. The agricultural correspondent of the journal writes:— Britain imported 15,465 cwt. of Soviet butter last January, three times as much as in January, 1933. Vast quantities were ordered by the co-oi>erative societies of this country. They have placed it in cold storage. In 1933 the co-op. bought 76,000 cwt. of Soviet butter. Yet it is impossible to buy butter labelled “Russian” in a co-operative store! One London housewife of my acquaintance went into co-operative shops in North London on Saturday and asked for Russian butter. The assistants pleaded ignorance, but offered 'her "pure dairy butter, including imported butter.” It was sold at lid a pound. A well-known Tooley Street butter importer told me: “Few people realise that a great deal of the butter sold by the co-ops. is Siberian (or Russian). They are its largest importers. It costs at least 8s a cwt. less than Empire butter, and is not nearly so good. Under the law to-day, the co-ops. are not bound to say that their butter is partly Russian. They are able to overcome any scruples by use of the compromise, ‘dairy butter,’ or ‘mostly imported.’ ’ ’