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Show Manifold Costs Of Marketing Account For High Food Prices Housewives and others paying record high prices for foodstuffs these days often place the blame for same on the. farmers, w There are, however, two steps r all foodstuffs go through before reaching the consumer: Production Produc-tion by the farmer, and markel-; markel-; ng or distribution, by the middlemen. . In general, says G. Alvm Car-nenler Car-nenler Utah State Extension marketing specialist, the farmer gets less than 50 per cent of the consumer's dollar paid for food. 'One distributing thing about the whole matter is that over a oeriod of years the trend has K been for the price spread between be-tween the producer and the consumer con-sumer to get larger instead of sm'Troduclion the fundamental fundamen-tal is being less well paid, whUe distribution the inci-der;tai inci-der;tai is being better paid," Mr Carpenter said. "Often the bi salaries are found in distribution distri-bution rather than in produc- tlMr. Carpenter point? out that there are many functions that must be performed before the marketing process is completed, such as assembling foodstuffs at : country points, grading, packag-" packag-" ing processing, transporting, storing, assumption or risk, re-" re-" tail distribution, etc. : '-The extent to which these marketing services are perform-, perform-, ed for the different agricultural commodities usually determines or grcatlv influences the price v spread between the farm and the t city consumer," he explained, i '"'For example, practically no v processing is done on eggs and potatoes, but turning wheat into bread, or tomatoes into a quality canned product is far more costly. cost-ly. . . On the average, the consumer con-sumer pays a little over twice as much for dressed meat as the farmer receives for the meat in the live animal." Marketing has become the chief agricultural problem in the opinion of many farm leaders he reported. "Many outmoded practices are to be found all along the line, from defects in marketing at country points weaknesses in wholesale trade and transportation, to the retail level, which seems to be the most expensive category in the marketing mar-keting process. "Some reforms and improvements improve-ments are necessary in various phases of marketing machinery if costs of distribution are to be reduced. At the same time it may be said that as long as consumers want service in the way of small quantities, frequently obtainable, always fresh, within a few blocks of their homes, the costs of getting produce from the farmer farm-er to the consumer will be high. "Distribution does cost too much. All phases of agriculture and the trade need to pav more attention to costs of distribution and see that they do not become constantly higher. Any progress made in reducing distribution costs should improve the nooition of both the farmer and the consumer. con-sumer. "Significant progress in this regard re-gard would mean that consumers could get more food for less money mon-ey and at the same time farmers could get higher prices to meet costs of production." |