§ Mr. George Rodgersasked the Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection whether he has received from 201W the Price Commission a further report on potato prices and distributors' margins; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HattersleyA report covering September and the first fortnight in October has now been received and I am arranging for copies to be placed in the Library. It points out that in this period supplies to the market were much lower than last year and retail prices were exceptionally high. It attributes the high prices to successive poor crops caused by the drought and pressure from increased costs of production and distribution. As a result, consumption has been greatly reduced. Nevertheless, distributors' cash and percentage margins both remained reasonably constant throughout the period: cash margins were a little higher than in August but percentage margins were little changed, and returned to their August level by the first two weeks in October.