ISHS Acta Horticulturae 55: IV Symposium on Horticultural Economics
PRICE CONTROL AND MARKET MARGINS FOR FRUIT AND VEGETABLES |
| Author: | P. Bowbrick |
| Abstract:
In an inflationary economy price control is frequently employed for political and economic reasons. Price investigations are carried out to see if price control is necessary because one industry is charging too much, or the price for one good is too high, and as an instrument of price control. This paper discusses the theoretical problems in weighting data and in comparing dissimilar shops, for single-product and multi-product investigations. The use of market margin analysis to determine the effects of pricing policy and of price control is discussed. It is shown that it is not normally possible to derive the elasticity of demand at wholesale from a knowledge of the demand at retail plus a knowledge of retailers' margins. It is shown that the decision that price control for an industry is necessary and essentially a value judgment. Practical difficulties in calculating producers margins, wholesale margins and retail margins for fruit and vegetables are discussed in relation to the British and Irish market. The practical and theoretical problems of imposing price control on fruit and vegetables are discussed. | |
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