DAIRY PRODUCE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20422, 12 February 1938, Page 22 (Supplement)

DAIRY PRODUCE

CONTINUOUS INCREASE BIGGER COW POPULATION A continued increase in the pro- ' duction of milk and dairy products, following increasing cow numbers, a growing proportion of dairy cows to total cattle and increased productivity per cow, is revealed in a report just issued by fee Imperial Economic Committee. The growth has, however, been less pronounced in recent years and adverse climatic factors in important regions in 1936 and 1937 caused a check to the increasing world exports of butter, the chief dairy product entering world trade. Between 1930 and 1936 the con-

j sumption of butter, a commodity with J an elastic demand, showed the great- ■ j est increase where price reductions 1 "’ere fully felt, as in the United . Kingdom and Denmark, countries also in which margarine consumption is , a factor; in both countries there was ; a slight reduction in 1936, when : prices rose appreciably. Consumption in the United Kingdom is equivaj lent to about 25 lb. per head per j annum, in Denmark to 20 lb., in j U.S.A. and Germany to about 17 lb. j an d In France to 13 lb. Apparent i consumption is particularly high in Empire countries and greatest in j New Zealand and the Irish Free j State with over 40 lb. each per head j j per annum.

Check to Trade. Since the beginning of the present century world trade in butter has shown a rapid and almost continuous expansion, but there was a slight recession in 1936. The United Kingdom took over four-fifths of world imports in 1936, compared with twothirds in 1930, an increase in actual volume of 46 per cent; the quantity received from Empire countries increased to 53 per cent of the total imports into the United Kingdom, but been as high as 57 per cent in 1935. Imports into other countries have declined substantially, chiefly as a result of restrictive measures, which followed a marked rise in imports in depression years or formed part of a general policy of greater self-suffi-ciency; in many cases, however, the trend is again upward.

Cheese consumption appears to have increased in many countries between 1930 and 1936; the United Kingdom was, however, an exception, the apparent consumption of cheese having diminished in recent years, but with under 9 lb. per head this country is easily the largest consumer in the Empire. Consumption in European countries is high and apparently increasing, the figure for France and Germany being 12 lb. per head and for Switzerland over 18 lb.