asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether it is possible for the trade to purchase tea direct in London at prices as low as 1/4¼ per lb.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Tea Import Prices.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will indicate the average price per lb. paid for tea by Tea Importers Ltd. in their recent purchases in London and the wholesale and retail prices charged to the trade.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the price Tea Importers Ltd. paid for the grade of tea retailing at 3/3 per lb. and whether this tea was purchased in the country of origin.
With the permission of An Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 11, 12 and 13 together.
For the reasons explained in reply to questions on the subject of tea prices in Dáil Éireann on the 22nd October last, the trade are at present required to purchase their requirements of tea from Tea Importers Ltd. and cannot obtain teas direct from London. Tea Importers Ltd. were authorised recently to make limited purchases in London as an exceptional arrangement made necessary by the need to supplement the stocks held by them by supplies of original teas of lower grades. The average price paid for these lower grade teas by the company was 1/4½ a lb.
Tea Importers Ltd. deal only in original unblended teas of many different grades which are sold by that company to the trade for blending. The teas which are sold by wholesale and retail traders are blends made up by those traders from original teas. I have no means of knowing the composition of the teas stated by the Deputy to be retailing at 3/3 a lb. and I cannot answer his question about that tea. Neither can I say what wholesale and retail prices were charged for blends containing the low grade teas bought by Tea Importers Ltd. in London. There is, of course, no official control on the wholesale and retail prices of tea.
In view of the fact that the average minimum retail price of tea in Ireland to-day is in the order of 4/- per lb., and that tea is available on the Mincing Lane market at as low as 1/4½ per lb., plus ¾d. freight and charges, say 1/5½ f.o.q. Dublin, surely be to God if the cost of living is at the level at which it is at present some steps ought to be taken to liquidate the existing stocks of tea in the hands of Tea Importers and give the people access to tea at one-half the cost they are required to pay for it?
I understand that the tea which is available at 1/4½ a lb. to Tea Importers Limited, and which would be bought at that price is unblended tea which must be seeded out. Before that is capable of being sold, it has to be blended with other teas to produce a variety of tea that people will buy. It is open to wholesale and retail merchants to buy any grade and any blend of tea from Tea Importers provided it is a blend the people are prepared to accept.
If the Minister will permit the trade in Ireland generally — the retailer, wholesaler and everybody else — to buy as best they may, I can assure him that, on the basis of the price quoted for the lowest grade original Indian tea in Mincing Lane, tea can be put on the market for retail of an excellent and potable quality at 2/- per lb. retail within seven days. I guarantee that tea can be made available at 2/- per lb. retail in every shop in Ireland if the Minister will take control off imported tea.
That is a problem of a temporary character arising out of the fact that there is a quantity of tea purchased in 1950 or 1951 as a reserve——
And now liquidated.
——which cost a lot more than the price at which tea can be purchased at the present time. That stock is moving slowly. Apart from that problem, there is no reason why Tea Importers cannot buy tea as cheaply as anybody else. These cheaper teas of this year's crop are now coming into the country. So far as I am personally concerned the sooner Tea Importers Limited, can be got out of this business the better. I have asked the Tea Wholesalers' Association what are their proposals for the future importation of tea. There is one thing I will not agree to and that is putting this country back into Mincing Lane. I would sooner leave the Government than agree to that.
Could the Minister leave Tea Importers to buy whatever tea the Minister directs them to buy and leave anybody else buy it at Mincing Lane or at Paris, London, New York, Fiji or Kamchatka, so long as our people can get tea at 2/-?
We had that system by which our reserve stocks of tea were held in London and when the war started we were let down badly. Not one of them raised a voice to get us a reasonable supply of tea. We were on a half ounce and they were on two ounces. They did not raise a hand to give us a reasonable share of these stocks. I told them that never again would this country go back into the London wholesale market.
Is the Minister having a spite fight with the London tea market at the expense of our people?
So far as I am concerned any system of importing tea which ensures that we buy tea direct from the country of origin and import it direct from that country will be accepted by me.
On the question of high costs, would the Minister find out whether they have the same taste for dear tea in Belfast that they have for timber?
The Deputy knows that the people of this country have the reputation of liking dear tea. Long before the war, the average price of tea was higher here. It was on the basis that that taste would continue that Tea Importers built up these reserve stocks to include various high-grade teas as well as low grade. At the present time they are being left with a residue of high-grade teas which is going slowly. We may find a way of liquidating that tea stock, perhaps, at Belfast. When that is liquidated, tea can be made available as cheap as in Great Britain and there is no reason why it should not.
Our people have to pay 4/- a lb. for tea.