DAIRY PRODUCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 243, 12 September 1929, Page 6

DAIRY PRODUCE

BUYERS NOT OPERATING. LONDON AGENTS’ VIEWS. (By Telegraph. to standard.) AUCKLAND, Sept. 11. Buyers are not operating in the dairy produce market at the present time owing to the fact that the values placed upon butter and cheese by the manufacturing companies are, in the opinion of London importing firms, too high in comparison with current quotations. . At present choicest salted butter is quoted on the London market at 176 s to 178 s, while 180 s is being paid for exceptionally fine quality. Last year at this time 180 s to 184 s was being paid for choicest salted, and from 186 s to 190 s for exceptionally fine quality. Cheese is in very much the same position. Recent quotations are : white 925, coloured 945, compared with 112 s to 114 s for white, and 110 s to Ills for coloured at the same date last season. “No London firms of any importance are prepared to buy at the present time,” stated one agent to-day. No business was being done because the London houses were not prepared to make offers that factories cared to accept. They had had their fingers rather severely burnt last season as a result of the high prices paid at that time. In the meantime practically the wholo of the output was being dealt with on consignment. It was stated that some small parcels for shipment, to Halifax, which could not be taken as a guide, had been secured at Is sd, but the requirements in that direction svere filled, though there was a possibility of further business at a lower rate. The opinion of this merchant was that lower prices would rule throughout the whole season as the trend of the market was toward more economic values for both butter and cheese. This opinion was confirmed by other agents who stated that the market was very dull and that there was little likelihood of much activity until the factories were prepared to accept lower offers. Any business that was being done was confined to small quantities, the bulk of the produce being shipped on consignment.

“The latest advices from Home,” stated a representative of another leading importing firm, “indicate that the London houses have had two bad seasons, in which the market has not turned out as they expected, and they are not prepared to buy at the rates that the dairy companies are now asking.”