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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1974-10-17, Page 17• f 127 YEAR -42 31 Deo. 1^ 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 ubk o 1,4brar r 52 1 Qn Mrea $ M Ods ch Ont. N7A 204 oberi.t.jj If you . are, expecting your trips to, the grocery store to cost you fess this winter, then the Prices Review, Board findings on food costs may shatter your hopes. The:federal consumer service recently released information that summarized the trends'in prices of basic commodities and factors that affect them, The food price reviews were conducted in the summer mon- ths and predict at least a con- tinuation of high prices on most items. In some cases a slight decline may be enjoyed within a year. SHORTENING. AND COOKING OIL The. price ofshortening has increased about 50 percent at the retail level over the past year v hile :cooking oil prices have doubled. 4, •e 4a THURSDAY, OCT9BER "17, 1974 ,p W SECOND .SECTION tion which did 'not cause a shortage but tightened supplies which caused price increases. •'Poor ' 'weather conditions in, Africa, which grows` the •bean' most used in production of in- stant coffee, has adversely af- fected instant coffee prices.- Brazil announced withdrawl from past agreements and an- ' nounced intentions of' in- creasing ncreasing its coffee prices 13 p'er- cent, effective June 1974, and intends to restrict exports in or- der to maintain high prices. Shipping rates for ocean going vessels have tripled due to energy and vessel • shortages ,, and this has added to the 'in- crease. ' Consumers can expect high retail prices for instant and ground • roasted coffees to con- tinuefor some time. However, some bargain purchases will' c= cur from time to time since retailers -frequently employ cof- fee sales at cost to attract con - The • main ingredients of sumers. these products are : edible' Marine, vegetable and animal oils, shortening combining all three and cooking oil consisting of blended or. pure vegetable' oil. Canadians consume 17 pounds of the products per capita over a year and commer- cial consumption accounts, for 90 percent of the. total. A world wide shortage of .alb . types of edible oils has driven up price bids for available sup- . •,plies. Marine and animal oils have 'more than : doubled in price since January 1973 and soybean and 'rapeseed oils have quadrupled. This combined with increased costs for packaging, labor and energy have exerted significant up- ward price pressures. Manufac- ' tCfrers have absorbed some 'of these costs but some must be borne by the consumer. Retail, prices for dried white' • Continued high prices' for shortening and cooking oils can pea beans have more than. be expected until later this year tripled in the past year mostly to due to increased prices paid when retail prices may decline. paid slightly due to expected in- producers; The Canadian ' creases in edible oil supplies. market is linked directly to the world market and since the There have been indications that vegetable oil prices.; are U.S., isihe largest . Producer ,of starting to decline in an- the product they set the prices ticipation of larger oil seeds and the Canadians adjust—ac- harvests this year. 'Since the - cordingly bulk of these products are con- Last year the country sumed�, commercially retail produced 160 million pounds of 'prices for processed foods using pea beans, 98 percent of them the oils should reflect the price grown in Ontario. Increased changes of them.•acerage planted this year was indicated but poor weather will cause a production decline. Canadian per capita consump- tion of_ the plant was 2.5 pounds last -year. A world wide shortage of white _pea beans has. developed aver the past few years due to lower acreages.: and poor yields. Since the majority, of Canada's product is sold at world market prices both domestically and for export, strong foreign demand has' exerted strong up- ward pressures on prices. This has caused, tight supplies although there is no, domestic COFFEE shortage. Last year the prices Coffee prices have increased for beans were lower at harvest by approximately 20 percent at times and foreign buyers took the wholesale level and by 5-15 advantage of the situation for percent at the retail level since °their purchases. Domestic Janpary. The greatest increases buyers held -off for some reason have occurred in instant col and had to pay higher prices for fees. their product and 'consequently Canadiat►'per capita consum- retail bean prices rose at..a ption of coffee was 9.1 pounds more rapid rate than expected. in 1973, and this trend is expec- Consumers . can expect tem - ted this year. About 180 million porary reductions in Prices at pounds of both green and harvest time but as' supply roasted coffee beans were im- dwindles through the winter -,ported last year with a total the price will rise accordingly, value' of about 107 million ` in 1973, a seven percent in- crease in acreage planted, and good growing weather indicates about 5.03 billion pounds will be ,harvested this year. Per capita consumption in 1973 was about 165 pounds in Canada and an expected in- crease this year makes the - potato one of the most impor- 'tant, commodities , in the Canadian diet, U.S. potatoes are being im- ported now at low'_prices until the Canadian crop can be har- vested and an increase in production below the border ?production driven prices down. The price cycle of potatoes is at its lowest at this time of year. A slight riseis felt from Septem- • ber to February as Canadian supplies are exhausted and U:S. crops: are imported in the spring, at high prices which decline as early American crops are harvested. "4, „prices for soybean and rapseed oils have mare than tripled, corn,,,animal and vegetable 01)5 have more than ,doubled in the past year'and these ingredients make up about 80 percent of the content of margarine. Packaging costs have increased' almost :50 percent since April 1973 with the shortage of plastic t and metal.. and paper packaging supplies • . • Consumers can expett con- tinued high prices' for margarine although small price declines may occur towards the end .of this yearitis unlikely" that prices will return to their former levels. It may be worth noting that margarine • manufacturers have absorbed same portion of increased costs in an effort to cushion the effect of price increases At. the_..retail level. __ DRIED WHiTE PEA BEANS dollars. The beans were .pur= chased fromq over 40 countries on the basis of an international agreement which expired in;Oc- tober 1973, The major reasons for price increases; are a decline of production, weather conditions in producing countries and \possible withdrawal ; from negotiated . price agreements by exporting countries. There ha§ been a 15 percent decline in vio-rld coffee prnduc-• PEANUT BUTTER 'Prices of peanut butter have risen approximately 10 percent since June 1973 and this trend ma'nclntinue. The main ingredients contained in the product are , crushed. peanuts, , peanut oil and sugar. Last year Canadians consumed about 2.57 pounds of peanut butter per capita. The shortage of edible oils Goderich and area shoppers are finding they have •to dig Signal -Star has tried to point out some of the factors that af- deeper to pay for their weekly groceries and this week the ' `fect food costs in the country today. (staff -photo) • Everybody is asking....... Is there any'ho has indirectly affected the price of peanut butter. Countries that normally . produce peanut sup- plies for.. the product have allocated many -of these quan- •tit es for. domestic peanut oil production. The priceof'the nut has almost doubled since June of 1973. The costs of.peanut oil have increased with the pr.lcesfor all edible 'ails in the world and sugar price hikes are forciri=g an upward trend. Packaging costs have increased 35-50 percent during the past year and shor- tages in these materials have occurred... . Manufacturers of peanut but- ter have generally kept large inventories of raw materials and • therefore the prices for. - these have remained stable un - 'tit the inventories have to be replenished. Factory prices in- crease to reflect these raw .material replacement costs. 'Wholesale 'prices of peanut butter have increased by about 40 percent since January 1973 - while retail prices have lagged behind. Continued high prices can he. expected until world shortages of the three main items con- tained in peanut butter can be • -overcome. chases and the balanc use'in' processed foods. One largecon- sumer of sugar is the soft drink industry which uses about 15 percent of 'all sugar supplies. One of the factors con- tributing to the.price increase is 'the consumption rate and the production rate. World sugar consumption .,.,has been greater than the production- singe 1971 and world . stocks have been reduced resulting in upward pressure on prices. Sugar was .13 cents a pound its the . first half of 1973 and rose to 38 cents, a pound by August 1974. Only about 28 percent of the total .world production of sugar is exported by producing coun- tries. Some of this is traded un- der` bi-lateral agreertients bet- ween exporting and importing countries' and the remainder is traded on the free market. As a result of the policy of buying an the free market••Camadian con- sumers paid less for sugar than other countries that deal through' bilateral agreements. In '1968, 50 countries signed' an International Sugar, Agreement 'that -brought - stability° into the market hut this expired in 1973 and the tight supply situation combined with increased world demand forced the prices up. V Fuel costs and vessel shor= tages have caused a tripling of ocean freight rates which affect sugar pricing. An instability of international currency..;,V slues, relative to each other and coupled with world wide in- flation have made sugar an at- tractive specul"alive ihvestment. Continued high prices for sugar can he expected until at least halfway through 1975. Price fluctuations will occur as new sugar crops reach the market but the return to very low sugar prices is ver flim since at the present time world 'supplies are'tight and demand is growing at a.faster rate than production. SUGAR Sugar prices are continuing to be unstable in Canada due to wide fluctuations in world market prices. The Canadian•, wholesale and retail sugar prices are directly affected by these fluctuations since Canada imports 88 percent of its total 'sugar requirements. The per capita consumption of sugar in Canada is about 102 pounds per year, 40 percent of the total accounted for by con- sumer and in'tOut tr'nal pur- CHEESE The prices for cheddar and processed ..cheese have risen sharply over the past year. Cheddar cheese prices are up 30 percent at ' the wholesale level and 20 percent at the retail. Processed cheese prices- haw. riceshave risen 20 percent at beth Increases- of industrial milk prices have directly affected costs for cheese. Manufacturing for the products account for ap- proximately 24' percent. of the, couritrys total -milk production. Canadian per--eapita consump- tion of;cheddar cheese was 8,44 pounds in • 1973 and processed cheese consumption was 5.51 pounds. The' increase in return to the milk; producers' brought about the price hikes in cheese and other dairy products. The federal and provincial govern-. inents. instituted a 40 percent increase to producers to main- tain a Canadian dairy industry faced with rapid increases in farm input costs. Continued high prices can he expected for cheese and other dairy products. It is unlikely any decline will' be• realized in the future since' higher milk prices to producers were required to maintain ,the dairy industry to insure adequate availability of milk products for consumers, Canadian percapita consum- ption af ice cream was 2.75 gallons last year whenthe total production figure was 60.6 million gallons. About 10 per- cent of the country's total milk production is taken up by,the manufacturing of ice cream: Increases in industrial milk prices to., ice ' cream manufacturers has been the Major factor in the rise., Current manufacturing milk prices paid to producers reflect an increase^of about 40 percent over prices of a year ago. The prices, were , negotiated by .producers, processors and milk • pricing agencies from the federal and provincial' govern- ments to offset the. rapidly rising_ farm input costs. Other ingredients other than milk • have also gone up and..these, combined with increases in labor, packaging and energy costs at ' the manufacturing level ,at to rising ice cream costs. Further price . increases can • he expected for most dairy' products since higher r-eturns to dairy producers are necessary to- maintain an economical Canadian dairy industry. ICE CREAM 'Ice cream prkes in Canada have experienced increases ranging from 15:30 percent at both the retail and wholesale level between .January 1973 and -June 1974. Prices "rose generally rapidly in Ontario and 'the western provinces and further increases can he expec- ted to reflect the recent in- crease in producer prices for in- dustrial milk announced by the Federal government. Consumers tinued "low prices related to the ...pr,ice cycle of potatoes. The cost of the product twill not return to the low prices of previous years but relatively high prices 'will give the farmer an incen- tive to increase supplies to the Canadian .consumer. Rising farm costs for fertilizer,. equip- ment, energy' and labor in recent years tnade potatoes unattractive to •farmers but in- creased financial returns to' potato' farmers will ultimately benefit the ;consumer. ca n expect con- • POTATOES Potato prices across Canada, at both the 'retail and wholesale level, have declined significantly since the begin- ning of July 1974. Current prices are below those paid during the. same period last year and this year's marketing indicates this trend is likely to continue. The country produced about 4.7 Killion pounds of pcitau»es 9 Special feature by -Jeff Seddon MARGARINE Margarine prices' have in- creased from „,50-100 percent during the past year with lower cost spreads experiencing the greatest gains. Since there is a .growth nf.�' margarine products in the markets and 'provincial regulations govern their production and saler"significant variations in prices occur • ac - (loss the country. The basic ingredients of margarine are edible, oils much the same as shortening. Total consumption of the product seems to be growing as the population increases and mere people find it an acceptable substitute for butter. Canadians consumed about 10 pounds per capita in 1973. A world shortage of edible oil supplies have exerted upward pressures on prices for 'available supplies. Current BEEF Canadian beef prices showed . some moderation •in •the first half of the year but began to climb at all marketing levels in .July..1974. Cattle producers are benefitting from the higher prices but the strike by Alberta reeat packers was the major factor in. price Bikes. Supplies• 'of available dressed beef.were decreased and cc''n'sumer demands forced other suppliers to' stretch their,,amounts. Almost half of the meat con- sumed by Canadians is beef but the per capita level declined slightly last year..The' level consu_ Ped last year was 91.8 pounds. "The demand for beefi.n the past feW years has grown at a faster .rate than the supply and'• responses to these demands cannot he met immediately due to the length ,of,time needed to increase herd sizes. From birth to market "weight takes about 20 months and it takes three years to increase the total size of the Canadian cattle herds. Bans or cattle imported into the country were put intoeffect last ' April and this caused a tightening of beef supply. The federal government placed im- port regulation quotas on foreign beef to protect' Canadian, producers against large and rapid price reduc- tions associated with large 'im- port volumes. increased coil:- sumer on=sumer demands in the summer months also contributed to an upward pressure on- beef prices. In the short term consumers can expect a continuation 'of beef prices until 'autumn when - more supplies are expected to reach the. market. Consumers demand directly ,affects the pricing of beef cuts. Por- terhouse steak, for instance, ac- counts for two •pe ent.f the carcass and is in demand,, thus the high price. Conversely stewing beef, and chuck ,roasts will have much lower prices. The facts and figures on these basic foods were p%epare,C . •to educate' consumers in the' 'factors affecting food prices. Slight fluctuations at the retail level ould result in prices dif- fering in y'ari°ous locations but ' on the whole they are accurate for .most of the country.