FOOD PRICES IN RUSSIA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6444, 10 November 1947, Page 8

FOOD PRICES IN RUSSIA

EFFECT OF A GOOD HARVEST Food prices in Russia have been steadily dropping during the last two months, according to a dispatch appearing in a recent issue of the Glasgow Herald. For some important basic commodities, such as potatoes and cabbage, prices, although not down to a pre-war level, are at least down to the level of the first few months of the war. Milk is also nearer that level. Bread, although at the moment still rationed, is becoming more plentiful. Better quality white bread is seen in the shops instead of the dark bread, and there is a greater variety of baked goods on sale, as the grain from this year’s bumper harvest finds its way from the mills to the bakeries. Two significant price cuts have been made recently at the co-operative stores. On August 22nd the price of meat was lowered by from 8 to 10 per cent, according to kind and quality, and the price of eggs by 10 to 12 per cent. On September 12th the following further pi ice cuts came into force—meat up to 20 per cent., meat products up to 30 per cent., fish and fish products up to 20 per cent, poultry and game up to 15 per cent., sausage up to 15 per cent., butter 16 per cent., and jams and jellies up to 23 per cent. Food may be bought in Russia in four ways from the ration shops, from the commercial stores, from the co-operative- stores, and on the open market. The iState, through the Ministry of Trade, controls the prices of food at the ration shops and the commercial stores.