OYSTER PRICES HIGH
Spirited Bidding At Auction Spirited buyers at an auction sale of oysters yesterday sent prices soaring. The top price was £7 5s a sack. Immediately after the auction. the Fish Retailers’ Association again sent a telegram to the Minister of Marine (Mr Gerard) requesting further investigation of the oyster trade. The 45 sacks auctioned yesterday averaged 1451 b compared with an average 1801 b a few seasons ago. Few buyers bought more than one sack, and the prices ranged from £6 18s to £7 ss. One retailer, whose oysters weighed 142J1b a sack paid £7 Is and had a total of 67 dozen oysters, most of which were small to medium. The buyers themselves caused the high prices, but complained bitterly of unfairness of open marketing of oysters. The final prices were more than double the reserve. The final cost, for the retailers, does not finish at the auction. Allowing for the wholesale cost of £1 18s 6d for opening a sack the cost rises to about £9. This works out at 3s a dozen for a sack containing 60 dozen, and this is the price retailers have been charging.
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Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 21
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193OYSTER PRICES HIGH Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 21
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