Le rôle des prix agricoles dans l'évolution des prix de détail

Part played by farm prices in the rise of retail prices - This article examines the role of farm prices in the development of retail prices. As the link between the two is foodstuffs, we outline the analyses already carried out showing that food prices had a certain responsibility for the use in retail prices during the inflationary periods 1954-1958, 1961-1963, 1969-1973. In order to analyse the link between farm prices and food prices we shall determine the margin due to processing, marketing and taxation between the basic farm product and the foodstuff. The global margin on farm produce as a whole is 50 % increasing slightly over a long period. Over a period of 5 to 10 years the rate of margin on many farm products - wine, milk, meat, grain crops - remains practically the same. The rate of increase in basic prices is entirely passed on to the consumer. Once the margins were known, we were able to determine what proportion of retail price increases was due to farm prices at production level. This proportion increased during the inflationary period 1970-1972. The situation varies according to the product: wheat and sugar beet have little influence on price increases. It is mainly meat and milk that are important. Farm price maintenance is therefore not a cause of inflation for wheat and sugar, but it is for milk. This process is linked to that of structural inflation. Meat is responsible for price increases because of an imbalance between supply and demand.