CHEESE DECLINE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 143, 20 June 1939, Page 11

CHEESE DECLINE

CONCERN'IN ENGLAND TRADE DISSATISFACTION A decline in the cheese consumption of Great Britain is causing considerable dissatisfaction in the cheese trade in England, writes Mr. A. H. Murray in Hansen’s Dairy Bulletin. Milk producers are discontented with prices received for cheese milk, and cheese factory proprietors are perturbed by fluctuating supplies of cheese milk, sometimes not getting sufficient milk to run their plants at economic capacity and at other times being overwhelmed with accumulated stocks. Some blame the Government for doing nothing to help the industry, others think the Marketing Board in Britain is not giving them a square deal, and others express the opinion that the depression is due to foreign and colonial competition backed by subsidies and favourable currency rates. However, says Mrf Murray, a report issued by the Imperial Economic Committee on Dairy Produce in 1937 makes it clear that the chief trouble is. the decline in consumption. “On a per capita basis, cheese consumption in the United Kingdom alone among the countries listed has shown a persistent decline in recent

years,” states the report. A suggestion that Great Britain has 2,000,000 unemployed who cannot afford to buy cheese is true only in part, says Mr. Murray, and it is beyond dispute that cheese is the most economical of all Great Britain's foodstuff's. The large exodus of the mining population from Wales—always a good cheese consuming region should not influence the consumption decline, writes Mr. Murray, unless the miners have favoured beef. Compared with Cheddar cheese, beef of average composition contains less than half the number of calories, less than half the fat, and only 15 per cent, proteins, compared with 25 per cent, in cheese. Other constituents, moisture, ash and carbohydrates, are all in favour of cheese. The waste in beef amounts to 18 per cent. Mr. Murray suggests that a survey of the situation should be made and that there should be extensive advertising. Every effort should be made to enlist the support of the National Milk Publicity Council, the Milk Marketing Beard, the Oxford Research Institute and the Cheshire Cheese Federation in an effort to rectify the position, says Mr. Murray. :