Sugar up 10c a 1.5kg bag

Press, 1 July 1985, Page 1

Sugar up 10c a 1.5kg bag

PA Auckland A I.skg bag of sugar is expected to cost about 10c extra in supermarkets from today. The New Zealand Sugar Company said on Saturday that the prices of its sugar products would increase an average of 6.5 per cent from Monday. The company’s marketing manager, Mr Richard Dodds, said last evening that before the increase a I.skg bag of white sugar cost about $1.14 in Auckland supermarkets and up to $1.30 elsewhere in the country. The retail price of sugar products like icing sugar and golden syrup would increase about 9 per cent. Manufacturers who relied on sugar as a raw material were expected to face increases closer to 6.5 per cent, he said.

’ The New Zealand Sugar Company’s managing director, Dr Peter Bowen, said “Sugar prices have held during a period of high inflation at a level applying in 1980,” he said. “In real terms this represents a reduction to consumers of more than 80 per cent.”.The company - had absorbed substantial cost increases from inflation. “Benefits have come from high factory and marketing efficiency, and from lower prices for raw sugar purchased on the spot market,” Dr Bowen said. As a result of devaluation and the company’s obligation to refine a substantial quantity of raw sugar bought under long-term fixed-price contracts, the balance in the sugar price stabilisation account had reached its limit. “Even with this increase, the price of sugar in New Zealand will remain lower than in most of New Zealand’s major trading partners,” Dr Bowen said.