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How much does food actually cost to produce?


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Old 03-03-2014, 18:24
moonlily
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I wonder what the mark up on food actually is?

I thought this today as I was eating a bowl of cereal- M&S Berries and Cherries. It was woefully short of the Berries and Cherries bit yet costs 2.49 a box. I wonder how much the contents cost? 50p? £1 at most?
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Old 04-03-2014, 11:49
molliepops
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We buy mainly Tesco value products and often wonder how they can even produce the packaging for the price of the item. So I would guess it depends how much your product costs, the idea of what you paid for a cereal when I can get 1kg of oats for 75p says you will be paying over the odds to support my cheaper products I would imagine.
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Old 04-03-2014, 13:15
walterwhite
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I wonder what the mark up on food actually is?

I thought this today as I was eating a bowl of cereal- M&S Berries and Cherries. It was woefully short of the Berries and Cherries bit yet costs 2.49 a box. I wonder how much the contents cost? 50p? £1 at most?
Probably less than that. Everyone takes a cut along the way and I doubt M&S are paying their supplier more than £1.
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Old 04-03-2014, 13:38
Shrike
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According to that nice Mr Google oats sell for about £100 per tonne from the farm, whilst a decent brand of porridge oats is about £2 per kilo. (£2,000 per tonne) from the supermarket.
So a 2000% markup for milling and putting in a box with picture of a quaker or scottish shot putter on
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Old 04-03-2014, 19:44
breppo
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There were a couple of programmes on bread on Dutch TV.
The cost of a 800 grs supermarket loaf is around 40p.
Doesn't matter what kind of loaf it is. White, whole grain, with sunflower bits, poppy seeds, sesame seeds and whatever. It doesn't matter. At the bulk volumes used in industrial bakeries the extra cost of those ingredients is negligible.
And here's the kicker, this is also the case for most so called sour dough breads, which as it turns are usually just normal yeast bread with some sour dough style flavours, scents and colourings thrown in.
Imagine the mark-up on those "sour dough" breads, because they are hideously expensive.
Regulations as to what constitutes a real sour dough bread differ from country to country in the EU, but in the Netherlands it's allowed to fool the costumers with fakery.

Note: This obviously this does not apply to the hand caressed, artisan, Paul Hollywood kissed breads.
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Old 05-03-2014, 20:48
moonlily
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I really feel I should start making my own bread again. A water mill near us is producing strong flour but it's 2.50 per bag I suppose for tourists and foodies mainly.
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Old 05-03-2014, 21:10
breppo
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I really feel I should start making my own bread again. A water mill near us is producing strong flour but it's 2.50 per bag I suppose for tourists and foodies mainly.
If I told you what goes into bread improvers that are commonly used in industrial bakeries, you wouldn't mind the 2.50 per bag.
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Old 05-03-2014, 21:20
whoever,hey
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2.50 for a bag of what? flour? that isn't much considering you can get quite a few loaves out of it.
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Old 05-03-2014, 21:59
brangdon
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2.50 for a bag of what? flour? that isn't much considering you can get quite a few loaves out of it.
I pay 80p for 1.5kg. It makes nearly 4 loaves; 21p a loaf. Other ingredients push the price up to 47p a loaf. It's about the same price as the cheapest supermarket loaves.
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Old 06-03-2014, 09:10
moonlily
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If I told you what goes into bread improvers that are commonly used in industrial bakeries, you wouldn't mind the 2.50 per bag.
Yes I don't really like to think about what goes into industrially produced food.

My cousin makes all her own bread, I might ask her for a refresher course and shell out the £2.50. If you can get four loaves from it it doesn't seem so expensive- our local bakery sells fresh yeast.
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Old 06-03-2014, 12:36
burton07
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You have to factor in all the overheads when you're working out the cost of food. Take something like oats: The crop has to be grown and harvested. So there are labour and machinery costs. Then it has to be transported to the mill - more transport costs. Then it is processed and packaged - packaging and labour costs to add there. Then it has to be distributed to the stores. Add more transport and labour. Then there are the stores overheads - premises and staff and finally the mark-up. It's a wonder stuff is as cheap as it is.

In fact farmers sell their milk to places like Tesco at a loss because milk is sold so cheaply that the farmers don't get a fair price.
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:05
walterwhite
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You have to factor in all the overheads when you're working out the cost of food. Take something like oats: The crop has to be grown and harvested. So there are labour and machinery costs. Then it has to be transported to the mill - more transport costs. Then it is processed and packaged - packaging and labour costs to add there. Then it has to be distributed to the stores. Add more transport and labour. Then there are the stores overheads - premises and staff and finally the mark-up. It's a wonder stuff is as cheap as it is.

In fact farmers sell their milk to places like Tesco at a loss because milk is sold so cheaply that the farmers don't get a fair price.
A loss? Are you sure?
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:09
burton07
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A loss? Are you sure?
Did you read the link?

Here's another one .
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:16
burton07
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Supermarkets sell bananas at a loss too. Read this.
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:17
walterwhite
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Unless I'm missing it the first article doesn't say anywhere that they are making a loss. The second article suggests some are 'struggling to make a profit' but that's as far as it goes.
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:30
burton07
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Unless I'm missing it the first article doesn't say anywhere that they are making a loss. The second article suggests some are 'struggling to make a profit' but that's as far as it goes.
This from today's Daily Mail

Dairy farmers get paid about 17p a pint for milk at the farm gate. For many this means they are producing milk at a loss, which has forced a number out of business.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2vBmPDiSs
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
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Old 06-03-2014, 13:35
walterwhite
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This from today's Daily Mail



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2vBmPDiSs
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Thanks for clarifying.
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Old 06-03-2014, 21:06
breppo
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In The Netherlands several industrial bakeries have gone bust because of the stranglehold the big supermarket chains have on the market.
There's only five major players in the NL. They determine the price and there is not much the bakeries can do about it.
It's one of the reasons bakeries can't easily invest in new ovens for instance to replace the old asbestos lined ovens. Profit margins are so low, there's almost no room for anything other than mere survival.
The situation is the same in the UK. Just a handful of players dominate the market.

It's not just bakeries but also the meat industry and farmers etc., who are often forced to sell below cost, just to get something for their products and limit their losses.
It's the producers who pay the price of the bargains, special offers etc. in the supermarkets. It comes out of their pockets, not the supermarkets'.

I once read a story about onion farmers who can't give their onions away for free.
Several months before the new harvest, supermarkets start to buy their onions in New Zealand, despite the fact that Dutch farmers have enough stock left of excellent quality onions at low prices.
Why? Because the mark-up on those New Zealand onions is so high, because of the NZ label and they're supposed to be "fresh", that even free Dutch onions can't compete.
Halfway May I'm always stocking up on onions, because I don't want to pay the higher price for NZ onions.
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Old 06-03-2014, 21:20
moonlily
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We sometimes have red onions in the field behind our cottage- one year they all had to be ploughed in as they grew too large, couldn't even be distributed locally we grabbed a few that were left behind, but what a terrible waste.
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