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Show CANNED FRUITS VEGETABLES TODAY'S BEST BUY Washington, D. C. (Sept. 9) Canned fruits and vegetables still are Mrs. Housewife's best buy in these times of high prices, the National Na-tional Canners Association asserted assert-ed here today If she were to consult con-sult the Federal Government's statistics showing the average retail re-tail prices of foods, she would learn that they are lower in price than anv other maior category of foodstuffs, the Association's Division Div-ision of Statistics reports. The N. C. A., in commenting on the release yesterday of official Bureau of Labor Statistics "cost-of-living" price indexes, pointed out that prices of canned fruits and vegetables are lower than thos-e of other foods. In fact, the average price of canned fruits and vegetables is well below the index of all cost-of-living items, which was reported by the Government at 173.7 percent of the prewar base period 1935-39. If Mrs. Housewife would transl- 1 ate BLS figures into dollars and cents, the N. C. A. said, she would discover that foods costing $1.00 before the war were priced at $2.17 during July, but canned fruits and vegetables that cost $1.00 prewar pre-war were sold at retail for only $1.58. In a comparison of today's prices with those of prewar, BLS listed canned fruits and vegetables as the least expensive of all foods. The price index of these canned products was 157.7. Sugar, next best in the showing, was 170.9. 1 The wide price range in food products, with meat at the top and canned fruits and vegetables on the bottom, is shown in the following fol-lowing BLS price indexes for July : Meats, poultry and fish, 261.8; Dried fruits and vegetables, 248.0; fresh fruits and vegetables. 223.2: ' dairy products, 209.0; beverages, 205.2; eggs, 204.3; fats and oils, 200.8; cereal, and bakery products, 171.0; sugar and sweets, 170.9; canned fruits and vegetables, 157.7. |