Beer, spirits up: sugar, coal to rise

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 1

Beer, spirits up: sugar, coal to rise

Wellington reporter and Press Association Price rises in three key consumer goods are imminent: beer and spirits will be dearer from Monday, sugar will go up in price again, and coal will cost householders more.

Higher prices have also been approved for flagons and large bottles of beer sold in bottle stores. The liquor increases which apply to public bars, approved by the Department of Trade and Industry result from applications by the breweries and the hotels. They are designed to offset increased costs, and in the case of the breweries, to restore partly their profitability. Jugs of beer will go up by 6c to $1.20, and flagons will rise by 12c to $2.41. -Glasses of beer will cost between 1c and 3c more. ■ and nips of spirits will rise by 1c or 2c. ■ Also, New Zealanders can expect the price of sugar to rise still further. . Retail prices rose 30 per cent in New Zealand last month, and the London market has reported that the price has risen by nearly 50 per cent in the last seven weeks. A New Zealand Sugar Company spokesman said yesterday that if prices continued to rise world-wide, then local

prices must be affected. This is because the world’s sughr production is expected to decline sharply from last year’s forecasts. Officials of the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington said the world crop for 1979-80 was estimated at 85.5 million tonnes of raw sugar, down 6.1 per cent from 90.9 million tonnes produced in 1978-79 The new estimate also is down 2.6 per cent on the . department’s initial forecast last November of 87.7 million tonnes. The Soviet Union’s beet sugar output is reported to be well down on last season’s,, and cane sugar output is down sharply among some main producers — Brazil, Cuba, India, and Thailand. This is expected to leave the world, short of about 5.5 million tonnes, the department said. A rise in the wholesale price of domestic coal from State coal mines has been approved by the" Government, the Minister

of Energy (Mr Birch) said yesterday. The maximum wholesale mine price of State coal has been increased by an average of 14.6 per cent. The price rise was necessary to recover rising costs of production and to ensure the continued profitability of the State mines, Mr Birch said. The details of the price rise would be given by the State Coal Mines after their district offices and main customers had been informed of its effects. The new price will be announced soon.