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APPENDIX II
INCREASES IN WARE POTATO PRICES
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1. Ware (eating) potatoes are price-controlled for the duration of each main- crop season, which for this purpose runs from 1st August to the following June or July when the old crop is used up.
2. Growers' fixed prices for 1952 crop Ware potatoes are 10s. 6d. per ton higher than those prescribed last season. This increase is made up of 3s. 6d. per ton awarded at the February 1951 Price Review and 7s. per ton awarded at the Special Review following the increase in Agricultural Wages in November 1951. The effect of this on retail prices is on average about one halfpenny per 7 lbs.
3. Wholesale margins are in the main the same as those of last season. Small increases are necessary to take account of the increases in rail and road transport costs. The effect on retail prices is negligible.
4. It is necessary to give a small increase in the retail margins on sales in 7-lb. lots. These margins have remained virtually unchanged since the war. Costs have increased substantially, wages alone having risen by over 30 per cent. in the last five years, while the price of potatoes has doubled in the same period, owing to the removal of the tonnage subsidy in 1947 and the acreage payment in 1951. The retail margin on sales in 7-lb. lots will therefore be increased from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per cwt.
5. The combined result of these changes will be to increase the average retail price of potatoes by about one penny per 7 lb. The effect on the All Items Cost- of-Living Index is likely to be about 11.
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