BRITISH TRADE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 198, 24 August 1935, Page 15

BRITISH TRADE

NEW ZEALAND’S DRIVE BIRMINGHAM CO-OPERATION “SELF-HELP” EXHIBITION LONDON, July IS. Following New Zealand’s successfu campaign in the Staffordshire potterie. last month, the (Dominion Dairy Boart has arranged to hold a similar recipro cal trade exhibition in Birmingham The exhibition, which opens to-day, i? part of the board’s final sales cam paign of the season. Prominent Birmingham firms, ropre seating the medical and chemical re quisites, rubber tyre, motor-cycle, bi cycle, small arms and ammunition nail, bolt and screw, and steel spring manufacturing industries, are exhibit ing their products at the New Zealam ‘‘shop” side by side with Doniiniot butter and cheese, as an illustration ol what Birmingham and New Zealand can and do send to each other across 12,000 miles of ocean. The board is pointing out ‘hat, a; a result of New Zealand's Empire pre tcrence policy, Britain now command* about 70 per cent, of the Dominior market for those manufactures in which Birmingham is interested. Losson of Staffordshire The Staffordshire campaign has already brought now trade to New Zealand. Speaking at the prize-giving for competitions among local traders, Mr. 11. E. Davis (London manager of the Dairy Board) said that IfiS Stafford shire grocers had held displays of Dominion dairy produce, and that orders (from the potteries had already increased to a remarkable degree. A special feature of the Stafford shire exhibition was a working map” of New Zealand, which greatly interested parties of schoolchildren who came with their teachers to inspect the display. The map, which is 13 feet long, is set in water, with model ships plying to and .from its shores—some bound for England, with New Zealand food products; others laden with British manufactures for the Dominion. New Zealand’s chief cities and industries are indicated by a system of electric lights, while photo graphic views, which are Humiliated simultaneously overhead, illustrate everyday life in town and country, the map will again be on view in Birmingham. Britain Imports Less Butter Britain’s butter imports for the first half of this year have declined by .‘•LiOOOcwt, or six per cent., compared with the corresponding period of 1931, according to the Board of Trade re-

turns published yesterday. Germany is now taking more butter from European countries, and with the exception of Holland, Continental exports ta Britain have correspondingly declined. New Zealand, too, sent 167,000 cwt lew to Britain, but Australia, which is now a shade ahead of New Zealand at Britain's biggest butter supplier, sent 186,OQOcwt more. South Africa and the Irish Free State show slight increases. English Farmers Organise The drop in imports does not mean, however, that Britain’s butter consumption is necessarily decreasing. The Government’s plans for the development of the Home dairying industry, and the institution of a national mark , for first quality produce have given la great stimulus to the production and consumption of English . butter, particularly of “creamery” or factory brands. Up-to-date butter factories, ’[organised on the Danish plan, with the ! most modern machinery, arc being I erected in all part’s of the country. Many of these are run on co-operative lines, and the Milk Marketing Board, which only a few months ago appeared to view the development of a Home butter factory system as uneconomical, is now planning the establishment of a model plant, either in Wales or the West of England. The present market price of English “creamery’’ butter is Is per lb, or 2d per lb more than the average price for New Zealand butter. This development may, in the long run, bo of benefit to IDominion producers. for the organisation of the Home dairying industry offers a more practical basis for co operation between English and Empire farmers in ithe allocation of the British market. I'he advisability of such a. policy has already impressed itself on the National Farmers’ Union, as mentionce in our last month’s rcvic v. Change in Biitish Diet Further evidence of the decline in the British consumption of margarine, and the ris» in butter consumption, is given in this week’s issue of the Grocer, a leading provision trade iuurnal. A prominent multiple store company reports that, its sales of margarine have fallen 50 per cent., whereas its sales of butter, in spite of tlh> recent advance price, were about fio per cent, above normal for the time of the year. The company’s view is that margarine, owing to jho low price set by the manufacturers in an attempt to regain their trade, has ‘‘lost caste’’ with the public, “as they cannot conceive that, a really good, edible product can be manufactured and sold at .'ld a lb.’’ There is every reason to believe, indeed, that, with the active educational propaganda which is being carried out on all sides for the consumption oi dairy produce of both Home and Dominion manufacture will continue tu ! increase.