The Profits on Food The gap between wholesale and retail
prices is a matter of daily observation. If wholesale prices are too low, retail prices are often far too high. One glaring case was noted in The Times last Saturday by Mr. C. S. Orwin, of the Oxford Agricultural Economics Research Institute. At Nantwieh on June 16th the best farm-made Cheshire cheese fetched 71d. per lb. On the same day at Oxford a grocer's price for similar cheese was Is. 8d. per lb. Mr. Orwin further stated that while English Cheddar cheese, factory-made, is sold wholesale at much the same price as imported Canadian cheese, the grocer's price for English Cheddar is 80 per cent. higher than his price for Canadian cheese and allows for a profit of 150 per cent. It is under those conditions that we are called on to buy British. A similar complaint about the high price of tomatoes, in Tuesday's News-Chronicle, shows that the duty of 2d. per lb. has apparently shot the price up by 4d. per lb. But that was to be expected. Tariffs arc costly luxuries.
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