of households seem to belong to different worlds. The upper stralum of the Kingston house-
holds represents a middle-class standard of expenditure and consumption not very different
from what might be found in Europe. while the lower strata among the rural households ex-
hibit the consumption and expenditure pattern of the West Indian peasant diet. Over 20 per-
cent of the rural households included in the analysis, for instance, recorded no consump-
tion of fresh meat or fish, but the proportion among the Kingston households which had no
consumption of these products was negligible. The changes in food consumption which
occurred during the last decade represent in many respects a process of transition between
these two modes of life, and there seems no doubt that this process will continue to charac-
terise the demand pattern of the next twenty years, assuming that the rise in average in-
come levels and the spread of urban consumption habits is maintained.


 Table 3. 2. i

 Average food expenditure per person per week, Jamaica Expenditure Survey, 1958

 Total or
 Item Kingston Other towns Rural Total o
 weighted av.


Number of households 352 127 681 1,160
Number of persons 1,138 506 3,209 4,853
Persons per household 3.23 3.98 4.71 4.18
 Shillings Shillings Shillings Shillings
Fresh meat 2.44 1.82 0.84 1.32
'Iinned and pickled meat 0.80 0.31 0.16 0.33
Fresh fish 0.89 0.54 0.14 0.36
Tinned and pickled fish 0.49 0.36 0.37 0.40
Roots and starchy veget. 1.61 1.68 1.61 1.62
Other fresh vegetables 0.84 0.45 0.30 0.44
Fresh fruit 0.69 0.36 0.28 0.38
Tinned and dried fruit
 and vegetables 0.48 0.33 0.27 0.33
Milk products and eggs 2.20 1.54 0.72 1.15
Oils and fats (excluding
 butter) 0.66 0.60 0.36 0.46
Cereals and bakery prod. 2.70 1.77 1.19 1.60
Sugar, sweets, etc. 0.66 0.52 0.39 0.47
Non-alcoholic drinks 1.12 0.90 0.39 0.61
Meals away from home 2.91 0.86 0.24 0.93

 Total 18.48 12.03 7.25 10.37