§ Mr. Granvilleasked the Minister of Food if he is aware that dried fruit can be purchased in towns in Suffolk in areas 4W where grocers are unable to obtain supplies; what is the allocation of dried fruit to grocers, bakers and greengrocers; and upon what basis such dried fruit and sugar quotas are arranged.
§ Mr. WebbI have not heard of any grocers in Suffolk or elsewhere being unable to get the supplies to which they are entitled on their dried fruit vouchers. If the hon. Member will send me the name and address of any grocer who thinks he is not receiving his voucher entitlement, I shall be glad to look into it. Dried fruit is distributed on the basis of unit vouchers which entitle a retailer to supplies according to their value in terms of units. The number of units entered in a grocer's voucher is that of his sugar registrations. For other retailers who sold dried fruit before the war, but have no sugar registrations, the number of units entered in their vouchers is related to the quantity of dried fruit they handled pre-war.
According to the supplies available, the weight value of a unit may vary from one allocation to another, but in each allocation a unit has the same value for every retailer. Bakers do not share in the distribution of dried fruit for household use. In common with other manufacturers their supplies form a percentage of their pre-war usage.