Price Raising in the Dairy Industry

Extract

From an early date Canada has been on an export basis in respect of dairy products considered as a group. From Confederation until the early years of the present century, expansion of production was to a large extent dependent upon the expansion of export markets. The extent of this dependence is indicated by the figures showing the exports of cheese and butter which, in the period in question, were the only dairy products exported. In the case of cheese, exports mounted steadily from 6,141,570 pounds in 1868 to the high point of 233,980,716 pounds in 1904. As for butter the amount exported, while somewhat irregular, was on the whole very considerable and in the later years of the period became extremely large. In 1868 exports of butter amounted to 10,649,733 pounds, whereas in each of the two high years, 1903 and 1906, they exceeded 34 million pounds. Since the latest years mentioned above, however, exports of both cheese and butter have tended decidedly downward. From the high point reached in 1904, cheese exports have fallen until for the year ending March 31, 1935, they were only 60,213,000 pounds. The amount of butter exported has varied widely but in only three different years since 1906 have exports exceeded 20 million pounds and in most years they have been well under 10 million pounds. In several years they have been from one to two million pounds and in the year ended March 31 last they fell to the record low level of 446,600 pounds.