THE FARMER'S PROFITS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 April 1919, Page 7

THE FARMER'S PROFITS.

"It never seems to occur to the Government that potatoes comprise a very small proportion of the cost of producing'bread, or that in nearly ail manufactures of foodstuffs and clothing the chief factor in increasing prices is labor 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 ah exception to this, and it must be remembered that wheat-growing is a very large user of labor before the grain reaches the manufacturing state/: One has only to look at a few of the increases to realise how little the farmer gets out of them. If we take wool, the fanner gets perhaps Is Ud out of a suit of clothes, though the price has risen £2 or £3. Of the increase in the price of boots the farmer gets Is to Is Od on his hides, though boots have risen from Ms to 15s a pair. For meat the farmers actually get less than they did in prewar days, but the retail price has risen by 2d or 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 he has to provide an equalisation fund to give the consumer his butter at 3d per pound below its market value. F.ven if the whole price of £l7 10s a ton for potatoes were added to the baker's cost it would not e\«eed a farthing on a 41b loaf, which says very little for the value of the evidence on which the Minister relies to justify his embargo." '