1/Average quantities of farm food products purchases per wage-earner and clerical-worker family in 1952. 2/ Data for average family purchases in 1950 of 25 articles of cotton clothing and house furnishings divided by number of pounds of lint cotton required for their manufacture; see U. S. Dept. Agr. Market. Res. Rept. 277. Revised; see p. 11. 3/ Data for 4 tobacco products from 1 pound of leaf tobacco (farm-sales weight), weighted by leaf equivalent of current tax-paid withdrawals; fiscal year beginning July 1957. Seasonally adjusted annual rates, calculated from Dept. of Commerce data. 5/ Dept. of Labor. 5/ Weighted composite earnings in food processing, wholesale trade, retail food stores, calculated from data of Dept. of Labor. 7 Seasonally adjusted, Dept. of Commerce. Annuel data for 1957 are on an average monthly basis. / Seasonally adjusted, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System. 9/ Converted from 1910-14 base.

THE MARKETING AND TRANSPORTATION SITUATION

Approved by the Outlook and Situation Board January 29, 1959

Prices farmers received for farm food products rose sharply in the
first quarter of 1958 but declined in the last three quarters. In the
final quarter of 1958 they averaged a little lower than a year earlier.
But this decrease was more than offset by higher marketing charges, so
retail prices were still 3 percent higher than in the final quarter of
1957. Farmers received 39 cents of the consumer's food dollar in the
final quarter of 1958 compared with 40 cents in October-December 1957.

The annual average retail cost of a family market basket of farm
foods increased from $1,007 in 1957 to $1,065 in 1958. Farmers received
about $26 of this increase in the form of higher prices and $32 went to
marketing agencies. Higher prices for meat and meat animals accounted
for more than half the rise in retail and farm prices from 1957 to 1958.
Farmers received 40 cents of the dollar consumers spent for farm foods in
retail stores in 1958, the same as in the 2 preceding years.

Farm-retail spreads for all food-product groups were higher in 1958

than in 1957. Percentage increases ranged from 3 percent for poultry and

eggs to 7 percent for meat products. Farm-retail spreads for beef and

pork reached new highs in 1958. The wholesale-retail segment of the farm-

retail spread accounted for all of the increase for beef and nearly all

the rise for pork. Reduced supplies of slaughter livestock and higher

marketing costs were principally responsible for the higher prices and

farm-retail spreads for meat. (For further discussion of prices and

spreads for beef and pork see pp. 12-19.)