THE PRICE OF HAM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLII, Issue 1737, 12 February 1921, Page 5

THE PRICE OF HAM.

• It was reported recently that, a** $ though cooked ham was selling"focal* t ly for 3/ per lb, the pig-rafeers re- ■ celved only* Bid per lb. for their .pro- * ducts. To-day the farmer "gets Gid' t per lb., while the retail price of ham j is 2/9. Why are the consumers call- - ed upon to pay such a huge differ- I ence? A “Times” reporter yesterday .> interviewed a local pork butcher, who quite willingly explained the reason .* and contended tha!t it was no fault of theirs. He produced a ham which, j he said, had weighed 15 lbs*-before >' cooking, after which process It turned the scales at 12 i lbs. The butcher $ trimmed and boned it in order to de- ? monstrate the amount of waste which he has to pay for. The weight”of the ham was reduced to 8J lbs. 'He-esti-mated his working price at 1/1 per lb, after doing his own curing, so that the total cost to him of the 15 lb. I ham was 16/3. The 8i lbs. which re- ‘| mained was sold at 2/9 per lb., realising a total of £1 3/ 4 id. The difference between the estimated cost price and selling price was 7/lid on the Si lbs. This, of course, was not all profit. Out of it had to be taken the cost of labour, cooking, fuel, paper (grease-proof paper cop* Hid per lb.), etc. Moreover fhc ham is, per- . haps, handled twenty times befbre being disposed of, and quite a quantity of it was further wasted in tho cutting machines and general handling. The butcher said that if he did not cure his own hams he would make nothing at all out of them. It was impossible to carry on a business such as his under 40 per cent, profit.^