§ Captain Yorkasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food whether he will give a schedule of the margins between milk producers and consumers showing separately how the total margin is split up for small wholesaler retailers, large wholesaler retailers, wholesalers who sell direct to a retailer, wholesalers who sell from several depots to retailers and wholesaler retailers whose organisation includes distributing depots; and show at what stages pasteurisation is a necessary condition for payment?
§ Mr. MabaneThere is no total fixed margin to be divided up by the different links in the chain of distribution of milk. Milk is made available to all retailers at a flat price; depot proprietors and wholesalers (including retail firms performing their own wholesale service) being remunerated on the basis of a payment per gallon of milk handled. The retail margin, representing the difference between the Ministry's selling price and the consumers' purchasing price, accrues to the retailer, except that where the wholesaler performs for him special services, which are not part of the normal wholesale function, such as bottling, supplying very small quantities, the retailer pays the wholesaler prescribed amounts for such services out of his retail margin. The following statement gives the remuneration received by the various classes of milk distributors:
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Class of Distributor. Margin per Gallon. Proprietors of Depots in Collection Areas 1.30d. on first 1½ million gallons of annual throughput of depot. 1.25d. on second 1½ million gallons of annual throughput of depot. 1. 10d. on remainder of annual throughput of depot Wholesale Dairymen (other than Depot Proprietors) selling milk to Retail Dairymen. 2d. Retail Dairymen 11d. in the London Area 10⅓d. in the Provinces Plus in both cases an allowance on the following scale to cover the cost of performing the wholesale function in respect of milk ultimately distributed by themselves at retail when the daily gallonage handled durine the datum month was 750 or more:
Quahfication. Rate of Allowance. Datum Month— Daily Gallonage … 750–999 gallons … ¾d. Daily Gallonage … 1,000–1,249 gallons … 1d. Daily Daily … 1,250–1,499 gallons … 1¼d. Daily Daily … 1,500 and over … 1½d. Where the daily gallonage is less than 1,500 gallons a retailer must hold a processing Pasteurising Licence or carry out Sterilising as defined in the Milk (Maximum Prices) Order, 1942, to qualify for this allowance. In respect of this allowance alone the pasteurisation or sterilisation of the milk is a necessary condition of payment.