BUTTER SHORTAGE IN BRITAIN NOT LIKELY TO EASE

Wanganui Chronicle, 14 April 1949, Page 5

BUTTER SHORTAGE IN BRITAIN NOT LIKELY TO EASE

LONDON, April 13 (Rec. 7.5 p.m.) Prospects of British people having in the near future the ample supplies of butter to which they were accustomed before the war remain remote, said Mr. H. E. Davis, London director of the New Zealand Dairy Commission, in a recent broadcast to English listeners. On the other hand, he said, British people are eating just as much cheese today as they did before the war. Although milk production in Britain had increased by nearly onethird in ten years, more than this increase was being consumed in liquid milk. Milk available in Britain for making butter and cheese shows a reduction of 50 per cent, compared with before the war.

Reviewing the position of world dairy herds, Mr. Davis said that with the exception of those in the United Kingdom and the United States, all were smaller than before the war. A lot of effort must be expended before they were back to the 1939 levels. There has been an improvement in cow numbers in Europe, Mr. Davis continued, and Britain expects to receive at least pre-war quantities of cheese this year from Holland, Denmark, France, and Italy. Holland and Denmark were planning to return to their pre-war butter export figures in three r four years. Both have made commendable progress with rebuilding their dairy herds. —Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.