Butter Business
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
In Dutch
On to Fiji wharves early in May thumped more than 13 tons of Dutch butter landed at a price lower than that quoted for the same butter on the London market 13,000 miles away.
It soon got into Fiji shop shelves at Fsd a pound cheaper than the local product, cheaper even than the local producers, the Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company, claim they can pro duce it.
In Fiji there is some measure of protection for the local in dustry, a general tariff of Id on a pound of butter from countries outside the preferential area. But even with this, and a five per cent, port and service tax and other odds and ends to swell freight charges, the landed cost of the Dutch commodity was still believed to be only 2/7 a pound.
The shipment has brought cries of dismay from the local producer, who has for some time found competition from Australian and New Zealand suppliers sufficient to keep the local plant below its full pro duction capacity.
Dutch butter couldn't go un challenged, of course. In a late move, Fiji banned the import of butter without licence from all countries except Australia and NZ to stop the dumping of Dutch butter.