The problem of scheduling sales of New Zealand butter on the United Kingdom market

Abstract

A major problem facing the authorities responsible for marketing New Zealand farm products in Great Britain, is the programming of monthly arrivals and sales in such a way that maximum revenue is earned over the course of a year. In this paper the author considers how the solution to this problem may be obtained with the technique known as Dynamic Programming, and using as his example the scheduling of butter sales to the United Kingdom in 1958/59. The bulletin is mainly expository - concerned with the description of the technique. Butter was chosen as the example largely because its sale is under central control and because the United Kingdom quota arrangements greatly facilitated the analysis. Under the conditions assumed, the author shows that an optimum sales schedule could have earned in 1958/59, £2 million more in sales revenue.