ONE WAY OF FORCING DOWN PRICES

Chronicle (Levin), 21 August 1947, Page 5

ONE WAY OF FORCING DOWN PRICES

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. LONDON, August 27. As 'a protest against low prices paid for market garden .produce and liigli I prices in London shops after the sam-- i produce has passed. through tlie hands ; of middlemen, a grqup of East Grin- i stead faviners and market gardeners organised a direct grower to consuiuer service which has already had tlie effec! of forcing down retail vegetable prlcein the Croydon distriet by 20 per cent The farmers sent 12 tons of vegetables l»y lorry from East Grinstead to Croy don where volunteer lielpers set up u large stall and invited housewives to lix wliat they considered fair pi'iees. By midday 5000 women were besiegmg the stall and all supplies had been solu out at prices one-half to one-third below the ruling retail prices on barrows and stalls in the neighbourhood. Gther retailers immediately protestu'J to the Ministry ' of Food but after .Ministry officials had visited the growers' stall and noted tlie prices, a ruling was given that the venture did not infringe ofiicial rogulations. A silent cl•o^^'d of angry barrowboys whose stalls had been emptied by Ihe exodus to the growers' market, watche-1 these proceedings. Farmers from many parts of the south coast distriet have offered to support .-the. sehemc and today, the' growers prop.ose'd-.'to offGr • 20" tons ""of vegetables and fruit. The organisers state that they intend to extend their operations to other parts of London and to organise direct sc-lling on a. national basis. The News Chronicle, editoriallj'-, says that while direct action on the lines organiged at East Grinstead will not have an effect outside a limited area, it has already forcibly drawn attentioii to the excessive cost of wholesale marketing. It was patently absurd that it should cost six times as much to bring a cabbage from the grower to the purehaser as it did to gro.w the cab bage. It was difficult to believe the middlcman's costs could justify these charges and he certainly tlid not pert'orm a social serviee six times more valuable than tliat of tlie primary producer.