Wider bread control urged

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 3

Wider bread control urged

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, February 22.

The trend of monopoly and reduction in the proportion of price-con-trolled bread justified an extension of public supervision of the bread-baking industry, said the Public Service Association today.

The association’s deputy general secretary (Mr M. L. Mitchell) 'was presenting P.S.A. submissions to the bread price inquiry.

ing of price-controlled bread.” Mr Mitchell said the P.S.A. would not suggest that price control be extended to all fancier bread varieties. C.A.R.P. VIEW The president of the Campaign Against Rising Prices (Mrs C. V. Kelly) said that if bakers pursued their present course, none of the cheaper breads' would be produced. Bakers were aiming to phase out standard bread and achieve a decontrolled industry. “If any price increases are granted they should be met by Government subsidy and not passed on to the consumer,” Mrs Kelly said. PROFIT MARGINS Counsel for the New Zealand Dairy Confectionery Mixed Business Association (Mr J. S. Alexander) said that retailers should gain 25 per cent profit from selling bread. Profit varied from 10 to 15 per cent at the moment. “A uniform retail mark-up on all bread would avoid difficulties which have arisen from the inconsistency of bakers throughout New Zealand,” he said. The director of the Consumers’ Institute (Mr R. J. Smithie) said that the regulations surrounding bread were a “confusing hodge-podge.” “ONLY SOME” Permitted weights of bread should be reviewed and the range should be greatly reduced, Mr Smithie said. Only standard and wholemeal bread should be subject to price control, and there should be ample supplies of such bread.

“The tribunal should recommend to the Minister an extension of price control over a wider variety of bread types to ensure adequate supplies of cheap, standard bread and the necessary ancillary measures to make such control effective,” said Mr Mitchell.

The main purpose of price control on bread should be to ensure that enough standard types were available to the consumer at the lowest possible prices. “But we doubt whether this can be achieved if price control is applied only to such standard types of bread,” said Mr Mitchell. “Over the last few years bakers have introduced a wider variety of high-priced breads, .and at some times and in some areas there has been a restriction on the bak-