§ 36. Mrs. Mannasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is aware that the prices of fish sold on Fridays, Holy days or in Holy Week increase without regard to weather conditions pertaining at the time; and, in relation to the present scheme made to attract housewives to purchase on Tuesdays in addition to Fridays, if he will introduce such a measure of price control as will enable him to prescribe reduced prices on Tuesdays to ensure custom.
Mr. AmoryThe British Trawlers' Federation's new publicity campaign aims at encouraging the housewife to purchase fish on Tuesday because that is usually a day when supplies are plentiful. Prices on particular days reflect the interplay of demand and supply, and I am sure the housewife is best served in that way.
§ Mrs. MannWill the right hon. Gentleman tell the trawlermen that the housewives have heard all these fishy stories before and will not walk into this net of buying on Tuesdays, because they know that the market is influenced by the laws of supply and demand and that if there is a demand for fish on Tuesdays as well as on Fridays the prices will rise?
Mr. AmoryI understand that the reason Tuesday has been selected is that the supplies of fish landed on Mondays are, because of the week-end, unusually high. The supplies on Tuesdays ought, therefore, to enable the housewife to get a very good bargain in the price which she pays for fish. That is why Tuesday has been selected.
§ Dame Irene WardWill my right hon. Friend tell the housewives that it is to the advantage of the fishermen, a very important section of the community, that there should be the greatest possible consumption of fish?
Mr. AmoryI agree with my hon. Friend's conclusion. I very much welcome this initiative on the part of the fishing industry to encourage the consumption of fish, which is a very wholesome and excellent food and which, nutritionally, has very good value.