§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will assess the factors underlying the lack of correlation between retail prices and ex-farm prices of agricultural products over the last year. [30836]
§ Mr. RookerAgricultural raw material costs represent a small proportion of the retail value of most food products. Costs of manufacturing, marketing and distribution are collectively of greater importance. As a consequence, changes in ex-farm prices of agricultural commodities have only a small influence on retail food prices. In the short term, this relationship can be further weakened by a variety of factors which may delay the transmission of price changes through the marketing chain.