Cost of food up 1.3 p.c.

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 1

Cost of food up 1.3 p.c.

PA Wellington Food prices rose 1.3 per cent in April, according to the food price index of the consumer price index. Price rises for fresh fruit and vegetables, wet fish, take-away foods and meals eaten away from home accounted for most of the increase.

Commenting on the increase, the executive director of the Grocery Manufacturers’ Association, Mr Ernest Newman, said competitive pricing in the food industry had been let down by basic food suppliers and prepared food outlets. Take-away prices rose 5.1 per cent; meals away from home, 3.3 per cent; fresh fruit and vegetables, 3.7 per cent; and wet fish, 3.2 per cent, he said yesterday. Manufacturers continued to restrain prices in spite of rising costs, Mr Newman said.

Except for beverages, affected by rising costs of imported tea and coffee, no processed food category had increased by more than 1 per cent last month, and two had fallen. Mr Newman called for similar restraint from suppliers of fruit, vegetables and meat, as well as restaurants and take-away outlets. The Labour Party said food price inflation was back to the level of the last decade and blamed it on the lifting of the price freeze. The Opposition’s spokesman on trade and industry, Mr D. F. Caygill, said the 15 per cent annual increase in the food price index was the same as shown by Labour’s monthly shopping basket survey.

“The latest food index figure is a strong indication that inflation is heading back towards double figures,” said Mr Caygill. Social Credit said the rise showed that nothing fundamental in the way of removing the causes of inflation had been achieved by the price freeze.