XXIII.-Cheese ... ... ... ... Monthly supplies-New Zealand and Canadian supplies complementary-Home production-Minimum fat standard for cheese-Skimmed milk cheesePackage cheeses. XXIV.-Other Milk Products .. Condensed milk-Milk powder-Ice cream-CaseinEmpire and foreign supplies-Condensed skimmed milk-Minimum fat standard for cream and milk powder-Importance of ice cream industry. Indication of Empire and foreign origin-Merchandise Marks Bill-Marking of unblended butter and cheese-Marking of blended butter-Distribution of labels by Empire Marketing Board-Use of proprietary names for blended butter-Use of Empire butter in blends. Inclusion of Empire butter and cheese in advertising campaign-Demand of Home, Overseas Empire, and foreign producers for British goods. F.-CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. XXVII.-Distribution to Ports in United Kingdom Supplies to United Kingdom ports-Development of provincial ports-Organisation of provincial markets. XXVIII.-Consumers' Preferences ... ... Demand of Northern counties for pale butter-Cheaper butter preferred by South-Local preferences in regard to cheese-Possibilities of sale of Canadian and Irish butter in Northern counties-Cask and boxpacked butter. XXIX. Research ... G.-RESEARCH. ... ... Evidence of Scientific witnesses-Division of research -Development of research institutions-Continuous research from point of production to point of consumption-Vitamins-Experiments of Medical Research Council-Vitamins and colour-Nutritive properties of milk residues-Scottish National Milk and Health Association-Central recording institutions for researchRefrigeration-Economic Research. XXX.-Dairy Produce Intelligence Service Phase of economic research-Collection and dis- Appendix 1.-Imports of Butter, Cheese, and other Milk Appendix 11.-Cost of Production of one Pound of Butter Fat varying with Yield and Butter Fat Percentage 59552 Page. 80 81 86 REPORT. We, the Imperial Economic Committee, representing His Majesty's Government, and the Governments of the Self-Governing Dominions, India, and the Colonies and Protectorates, acting under our Terms of Reference published on the 6th March, 1925, beg leave to present to the Governments of the Empire this our Fourth Report-The Marketing and Preparing for Market of Dairy Produce. I. Introduction. 1. Under our Terms of Reference we have been asked to consider the possibility of improving the methods of preparing for market and marketing within the United Kingdom the food products of the Overseas parts of the Empire with a view to increasing the consumption of such products in the United Kingdom in preference to imports from foreign countries, and to promote the interests both of producers and consumers. We have already issued Reports dealing with meat and fruit. On the conclusion of our inquiries into these foodstuffs it was agreed by the Governments of the Empire that we should, as the next stage of our investigation, conduct a similar inquiry into dairy produce. 2. In our inquiry into dairy produce we have concentrated in the main on butter and cheese. We have regarded the supply of fresh milk and cream in the Home country as a domestic problem and have not examined it in any detail, since the supplies are entirely in the United Kingdom itself, with the exception of a small quantity imported from the Irish Free State. In a separate section of this Report we deal with the trade in subsidiary milk products, such as condensed milk, milk powder, ice cream, and casein. 3. Margarine, which enters to some extent into competition with butter, we have not dealt with in this Report, but have reserved it for discussion in a supplementary Report which we annex to this Report. We take this course for the reason that the manufacture of margarine is forbidden in Canada, and also its importation, and the Canadian Government did not think it advisable that under the circumstances their representative should take part in that portion of our investigation. 4. In regard to the subject of dairy produce, we have held 26 meetings. We have examined a considerable number of witnesses, representing both producing and marketing interests. We have further had the advantage of consultation with experienced officials both of the Home and Overseas Governments and with men of scientific eminence, and we desire to take this opportunity of thanking these gentlemen for their skilled assistance. 5. In conducting our present inquiry and in the preparation of this our Fourth Report, we have kept in view the general recommendations set out in our First Report and amplified in our Third Report. Since those Reports were issued the Home Government has set up the "Empire Marketing Board," to which it has entrusted the duties which we desired to see assigned to an "Executive Commission" responsible to Parliament at Westminster. The recommendation that such a Commission should be set up has, therefore, in substance been accepted, and in the present Report our references will no longer be to a proposed Executive Commission, but to the provisionally established Empire Marketing Board. According to the announcement recently made by Mr. Baldwin of the agenda for the coming Imperial Conference, the position of this Board will be one of the matters to be discussed at that Conference. 6. It is, perhaps, well to state that at the cost of a certain amount of repetition we have sought to make each of our Reports complete in itself and not merely instalments of a single long Report. There are some who for the purposes of broad policy will read all our Reports, and we would ask that such readers will forgive repetitions, and wiil understand that there are others, especially producers of particular commodities in particular parts of the Empire, who will read only that Report which affects in a practical way their own business. A. THE TRADE IN DAIRY PRODUCE. II.-Empire Trade in Dairy Produce. 7. The grass crops of the Empire are not less important than its cereal crops. The grass lands of the Empire support 200,000,000 head of cattle and 200,000,000 sheep. Much of the corn produced in the Empire is consumed on the spot, and the value of the imports into the United Kingdom from the grass lands is nearly three times as great as from the corn lands. In the year 1924 the cereals and their products imported into the United Kingdom from Empire countries were valued at £53,000,000, whereas the value of the imports of the products. of the grass crops (mainly meat, wool, hides, and dairy produce) were no less than £157,000,000. 8. Of the main classes of foodstuffs imported into the United Kingdom from overseas, dairy produce occupies third place. In 1924 the United Kingdom paid £120,000,000 for imported grain and flour, £106,000,000 for imported meat, and £70,000,000 for various classes of dairy produce. A certain amount of dairy produce to the value of £2,200,000 was re-exported, leaving a balance of £67,800,000 as the value of imported supplies consumed in the United Kingdom. Of the £70,000,000 paid for imported dairy produce, no less than £34,000,000 went to Empire countries. 9. Apart from milk consumed in the liquid form, the most important items of dairy production are butter and cheese. The importation of these two commodities into the United Kingdom is rapidly increasing. Between the years 1913 and 1924 the anicunt paid to foreign countries for butter and cheese rose by 47 per cent., and the amount paid to Empire countries by no less than 178 per cent.* In 1924 the total value of butter and cheese imported into the United Kingdom from all sources £63,000,000. Of this sum, £33,000,000. or 52 per cent., was paid to Empire countries. was 10. An examination of the quantities, as distinct from the values, of the imported supplies emphasises the development of the trade and the extent to which Empire countries are taking an increasing proportion of it. In the five years ending 1904 the average annual importation of butter into the United Kingdom was 3,870,000 cwts. In 1925 this had risen to 5,850,000 cwts. In the interval the Empire supply rose from 18 per cent. to 51 per cent. of the total quantity. A similar growth has occurred in the cheese trade. In the five years ending 1904 the United Kingdom imported on the average 2,620,000 cwts. In 1925 this had risen to 3,100,000 cwts. Between these two years the Empire share increased from 68 per cent. to 88 per cent. of the total imported. t 11. Reliable statistics are not available of the quantities of butter and cheese produced in the United Kingdom. We have, therefore, had to depend on such estimates as the Ministry of Agriculture, in the light of their experience, are able to frame. These estimates, we should add, are supplied by the Ministry with considerable reserve. We are told that the output of butter in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including butter made and consumed on the farms, may be taken as in the neighbourhood of 1,000,000 cwts., and the output of cheese as 1,250,000 cwts. The following table shows the percentages of butter and cheese produced in the United Kingdom itself and imported from Empire and from foreign countries respectively in 1924. For comparative purposes we have also added the percentages for margarine, although that commodity is dealt with in a supplementary Report: 12. In Great Britain and Northern Ireland there is a large area devoted to grass crops which form the main source of support of nearly 25,000,000 sheep and 8,000,000 head of cattle. These provide the dairy herds which supply the bulk of the milk consumed in the Home country, for apart from an importation of about 500,000 gallons of fresh milk from the Irish Free State, the whole of the eight or nine hundred million gallons drunk annually is Home produced. We have not conducted a detailed investigation into the fresh milk trade, partly because it is almost entirely a domestic rather than an Imperial question, and partly because it was the subject of an exhaustive inquiry by the Linlithgow Committee in 1923. 13. Of the minor milk products consumed in the United Kingdom the most important is condensed milk. In 1924 the value of the imported supplies of this commodity was £5,700,000, the bulk of which came from foreign countries. Relatively small quantities of milk powder, of cream, and of casein are also imported. The value of these three items together was, however, in 1924, less than £1,000,000. 14. Generally it may be said that the Home country provides its own fresh milk; that the Home production of butter is relatively small, being one-sixth of the total consumption; that the Empire has come to supply more butter than foreign countries, but that foreign countries are now recovering their position, and will in the near future compete again more keenly; and that the cheese requirements of the Home country are met to the extent of over 90 per cent. of the consumption from Empire countries. III. Sources of Supply to the United Kingdom. 15. The main sources from which the United Kingdom derives its supplies of dairy produce are: 16. As already stated, the butter supplies of the United Kingdom have come increasingly from Empire countries during the progress of the present century. This is not merely a post-war development. In pre-war days the relative importance of foreign countries was already declining, but this tendency has been accentuated since the war. In regard to these foreign supplies the most striking features have been-that the United States has disappeared from the list owing to the increased demands * See Appendix I. |