THE FARMER’S PROFITS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1961, 5 April 1919, Page 1

THE FARMER’S PROFITS.

“It never seems to occur to the (.loverumeiU that potatoes comprise a very small proportion ol' Hie cost of producing' bread, or that in nearly all nmmil'aelures of foodstuffs and clothing the chief factor in increasing prices is labour and the middlemen’s profit/’ says the Farmers’ Union Advocate, in the course of a protest against the embargo on the export of potatoes. “Wheat is probably an exception (o this, and it must be remembered that whealgrowing is a very large user of labour before the grain reaches the manufacturing state. One Ims only to look at a’few of the increases to realise how little the farmer gets out of them. If we take wool, the farmer gets perhaps Is (id out of a suit of clothes, (hough the price lias risen £2 or £3. Of (he increase in the price of hoots the farmer gels Is to Is Od on his hides, though boots have risen from 10s to 15s a pair. For meat the farmers actually gel less than they did in pre-war days, hut the retail price has risen by 2d to 3d per pound. For butter the producer obtains a higher price, which nearly all goes in heavier costs of production, and on top of that lie has to provide an equalisation fund to give the consumer his butter at 3d per pound below its market value. Even if the whole price of £l7 IDs u ton for potatoes wore added lo the baker’s cost it would not exceed a farthing on a 41b. loaf, Avhicli says very little for the value of the evidence on which the Minister-relies to justify his embargo.”