PRICE OF BREAD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21032, 22 May 1930, Page 10

PRICE OF BREAD.

BAKERS AGREE ON Hd. FLAT RATE THROUGHOUT CITY. COMPARISON WITH NORTHERN CENTRES. The price of bread in Dunedin has been the subject of much pointed reference by politicians, millers, and others in the north, and when Mr W. J. Poison, M.P., president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, toured the South Island early this month he was surprised to find that householders in Dunedin were able to got the best bread for lOd per 41b loaf, and even in some cases for 9Jd. This very happy state of affairs has existed for the greater part of the present year, and is in marked contrast with the plight of the North Island householder, who is asked to pay 13d per 41b loaf cash over the counter,. or 14d delivered. The underselling that has been going on in Dunedin moved Mr Poison to remark that there mast be something very wrong with the costs of production in the North Island, and he suggested that it was a matter that might bear investigation. A Dunedin master baker, commenting on'the position to a Daily Times reporter last evening, intimated that the tenpenny days were at an end in Dunedin, and that as a result of mutual arrangements bakers in the city and suburbs were agreed upon a stabilised price of lid per 41b loaf. Asked whether this move was the result of any increase in the cost of materials or baking, onr informant said that it was simply the natural consequence of such unwarrantable price cutting. Those who had been retailing bread over the counter at lOd per loaf were selling below cost, and could not expect to have any margin at all. They had failed to make ends meet, and were now agreed to return to the old price of lid per loaf which had been adhered to by many bakers. As far as bread at 9Jd per loaf was concerned, he considered that it must have been sold at a big loss, and he did not know what the position was as regarded those who had sold at that figure. He could say, however, that the tenpenny shops had now raised their price to lid, which allowed a small enough margin of profit. Questioned as to the cost of bread in the North Island, the baker said that conditions In the northern centres were not so favourable to the bakers as those in Dunedin.. Their flour’cost them more, and their firing was a much more expensive item. Their coal had to be imported by sea, whereas Dunedin was handy to several mines, and their flour had to be brought in in the same way from Lyttelton, Oamaru, Timaru, or some other South Island port, and as a result cost them more than it did the Dunedin baker. Nevertheless, even considering the heavier costs, the North Island baker reserved to himself a greater margin of profit than the local man who was retailing at lid.