What’s with the regional price disparities?

So, food prices are rising – up 3 per cent on a year ago – and one of the driving factors seems to be the cost of dairy products.

The price of butter recently rose to a record high, according to the food price index, with the cheapest 500-gram block selling for $5.55 – a rise of 3 percent for September and 60 per cent higher than a year ago.

Well, all of this goes to explain my bewilderment in the supermarket last week when I saw that a brand of Danish butter was cheaper than most of the New Zealand brands.

Considering that here in Timaru we live just a few kilometres from Clandeboye, one of the largest dairy factories in the southern hemisphere, it’s hard to understand why butter shipped halfway round the world should be cheaper than the local product.

To rub unsalted butter into our wounds, back in March Clandeboye’s product – Mainland butter - was awarded top marks by an international judging panel in the New Zealand Champions of Cheese awards (butter and yoghurt products were recently added to the awards ‘‘acknowledging the importance of these dairy products for consumers’’).

Important they may be but as the cost of these items continues to soar they are becoming increasingly unaffordable to families at the lower end of the income scale. That same prizewinning butter was selling in the supermarket this week at $7.60.

According to a dairy industry spokesman, the surge in butter prices is due to worldwide demand outstripping supply, hence dairy retailers can demand more for their product. But don’t get the impression farmers will suddenly find themselves rolling in money. Apparently, they will see only a slight benefit – about 30c per 500gm block - from the surging prices. Presumably the rest of the windfall is being churned over by the manufacturers and the supermarkets.

I’ve had a deep suspicion of domestic dairy prices ever since the industry’s worldwide slump in prices a year or so ago. When I visit the supermarket, I use my personally devised ‘‘price of tasty cheese’’ barometer to gauge how we are faring on the dairy shopping front.

One thing I noticed during the dairy slump was the price of a 1kg block of cheese barely shifted. Even the cheapest supermarket brand remained stubbornly above $10 and the better-known products were at least $13 a block.

So, it would appear the customer pays through the nose when times are good for the New Zealand dairy industry - and we prop up the producers when world prices stagnate.

And, while I’m on the topic of bewildering charges, I’d like to raise the subject of petrol prices.

As a correspondent noted in The Timaru Herald a few weeks ago, the price of petrol in Ashburton is lower than here in Timaru. The writer asked why was this the case considering we are only just down the road.

I’d forgotten about this letter until I passed through Ashburton a few days ago and as I did so I noticed the service stations there were selling unleaded regular petrol for $2 a litre (I refuse to acknowledge the oil companies’ ridiculous habit of pricing to the infinitesimal decimal point).

As I had been away from home for a few days I assumed the price of fuel must have dropped in my absence but when I arrived back in Timaru I discovered this was not the case. Our prices were still the same as when I left - 2c a litre dearer.

Why is this the case when Timaru has a port for fuel deliveries and Ashburton doesn’t? It can’t be the Gull effect because there no Gull Oil petrol stations in the South Island. It’s baffling.

Finally, I’ll complete this Victor Meldrew rant about pricing with a comment about the recent habit of some bach owners now charging a compulsory extra fee for cleaning.

In the past visitors did their own cleaning on leaving a property. I’m not sure whether the additional cleaning charge is due to tardiness on the part of departing tenants but an increasing number of baches now demand an extra $70 or $80 for cleaning.

This charge is invariably in the small print at the bottom of the application page, so a bach that is being advertised as $200 a night is in reality nearer $300, a not inconsiderable difference.

I can understand owners introducing a cleaning charge to ensure their place is spotless for the next visitors but they should be up front and include it in the advertised price.

We must accept that everything costs more these days and it’s no use us expecting businesses to butter us up with surprise bargains - because butter’s just too expensive.