Sugar Price Enough In Account For A Month

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30339, 15 January 1964, Page 14

Sugar Price Enough In Account For A Month

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, January 14. The unspent balance remaining within the £2.5 millions Government-guaranteed overdraft limit for the Sugar Price Equalisation Account is sufficient to last under present conditions of cost, retail price and consumption until the middle of February.

Earlier reports suggested that in the absence of a Government decision on the retail price of sugar next week an immediate price rise would be imposed. The Cabinet will consider next Tuesday the question of allowing a price rise or extending the limit of the overdraft guarantee or a combination of both. In Auckland, grocers and housewives have made a run on sugar stocks in anticipation of - possible price rise next week. Some grocers are limiting sales to 121 b a customer although there is no shortage of supplies. Retailers said today that the increased demand could

I not have come at a worse time. Stocks were low after the holidays and the seasonal demand for extra sugar for bottling and jam-making was increasing. They denied grocers were holding back stocks in the expectation of making a bigger profit. Wholesalers described the demand for sugar today as "a mad rush” and “a terrific run.” They said they were only getting their normal amount from the refinery and some wholesalers had had to limit the supply to the grocers. An official from the New Zealand Sugar Company, Ltd., said sugar deliveries were normal. There was no question of holding up deliveries.

Big Buying By Grocers Christchurch grocers are rushing to buy sugar, but so f the public is not hoarding supplies. Mr E. H. Down, president of the Canterbury Master Grocers’ Association, said yesterday that retailers had “just gone mad” trying to get as much sugar as possible. Most in the trade thought the Government would continue its price stabilisation scheme, he said, for any increase in the price would be far-reaching, affecting many other grocery lines.