- 39 - 
Table 19.--Fruits and vegetables: 
Retail cost, farm value, marketing margin, and 
farmer's share of retail cost, annual, 1956-60 1/ 
Fresh fruits and vegetables 
1 
Year Retail cost Farm value Margin Beene tae 
share 
Dollars Dollars Dollars Percent 
L956) 4 is koe ee & 129.34 48.10 81.24 37 
LOIS aati tek nD Rem ots 130237 44.76 85.61 34 
TO5'Bcasee cee Satie ee os ISOS 7 49.30 90.27 35 
OS GRgeT Sis ee eae es 133,38 45.68 87.70 34 
LOGON27 - Bt 4 et eae 143.56 52.44 91.12 37 
Processed fruits and vegetables 
L956: 2 se Jas oe a, es 90.47 18.62 lates) Dali 
CS iia etaier Sho Re Deer ie he 88.35 17.48 70.87 20 
VOS8i4. teen oh Lede at 94.02 ly pe) 76.73 18 
O59) Gara SA oe eek one 97.23 22°32 74.91 23) 
Col OIG dies cheno PON I 93.73 19.28 74.45 21 
1/ Data are for quantities of fruits and vegetables bought for consumption at home 
per urban wage-earner or clerical-worker family in 1952. 
2/ Preliminary. 
from 1958-59 to 1959-60 resulted from 
an increase in the supply of Florida 
fresh oranges. Shipments in the 1958-59 
season were the smallest in a generation 
and prices were the highest. The crop 
was lighter than other recent crops and 
a smaller proportion was marketed as 
fresh fruit. The 1959-60 crop was larger 
and a greater proportion was marketed 
fresh. Sales of California fresh oranges, 
however, declined sharply from 1958-59 
to 1959-60. 
Charges for retailing and wholesaling 
are the largest segment of the total 
marketing margin. As a percentage of 
the retail price, the combined wholesale- 
retail margin in 1958-59 varied from 
33 percent in Chicago to 45 percent in 
Detroit; in 1959-60, from 37 percent in 
Chicago to 46 percent in Atlanta. Dollar- 
and-cents wholesale-retail margins in 
both seasons were largest in New York 
and Detroit, where retail prices were 
highest; margins were smallest in Chi- 
cago and Pittsburgh, where prices were 
near the lowest. The lowest retail price 
was in Atlanta in both seasons. Transpor- 
tation costs to Atlanta were the lowest, 
but the wholesale-retail margin was the 
third largest among the five cities in 
both years. Wholesale-retail margins in 
each of the cities, except Pittsburgh, 
averaged lower in the 1959-60 season 
than a year earlier. 
Retail store margins vary among cities, 
depending on pricing policies, operating 
costs, and many other factors. Variations 
in services performed by wholesalers 
affect their margins. For fresh fruits and 
vegetables, these margins tend to vary 
directly with changes in prices of the 
product. Thus, the wholesale-retail mar- 
gin in all but one of thesecities decreased 
from 1958-59 to 1959-60 when prices 
of oranges at all marketing levels de- 
creased, 
Charges for marketing services per- 
