FLOUR CONSUMPTION DROPS MARKEDLY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31669, 3 May 1968, Page 1

FLOUR CONSUMPTION DROPS MARKEDLY

Since the subsidy on flour was removed on February 10, 1967, the flour consumption of the average New Zealander has fallen by 6 per cent.

The annual consumption has fallen by 111 b a person. The flour used in bread has fallen by 91b, or 8 per cent. In the year before the re-, moval of thb subsidy, the average New Zealander consumed 1791 b of flour a year. After the subsidy removal, he consumed 1681 b, of which 1021 b went into his bread, compared with 1111 b before. When the subsidy on flour was removed on February 10, 1967, the price to bakers increased from $2O to $92 a ton. The quantity used by

bread bakers in New Zealand in the year since the subsidy was lifted has fallen by about 7 per cent. Bread production for the seven • months ended September 30, 1967, fell by an amount equivalent to 11,600 tons of flour a year (7} per cent). Normally, a slight increase over the same period for the previous z year was shown. Calculations of per capita consumption based on official estimates of flour and bread production show that even before the removal of the subsidy, a steady decline in flour consumption had occurred. For example in the year ended January 31, 1961, the

average person in New Zealand consumed 1171 b of flour in bread. By 1967, this figure was 1111 b. The decline in flour consumption per capita for all uses was similar. The decline in both instances was sharply accelerated by the removal of the flour subsidy.