while food expenditure reckoned at a common price level would probably have amounted to
much the same figure in both territories. There is no doubt however that Trinidad and
Tobago enjoyed the highest level both of real income and of food consumption, and the group
of smaller islands the lowest, even though the latter include Barbados which, individually,
had an average real income per capital not very different from that of Jamaica and consid-
erably higher than those of the territories with which it is grouped.


 Table 3.4.i

 Food consumption per capital of population, by territories, 1958


 Trinidad Leeward Islands, British
 Item Jamaica and Windward Islands Guia
 Tobago and Barbados

 Pounds per year
Cereals, total 177.5 285.5 179.5 255.1
Rice 42.3 103.0 52.5 149.1
Sugar and sugar preparations 83.5 64.0 85.0 68.0
Roots and starchy vegetables
 (incl. plantains) 250.9 146.3 179.6 90.0
Vegetables and pulses 70.6 90.2 49.0 47.3
Fruit (incl. bananas) 291.3 167.8 161.9 29.9
Meat (incl. poultry) 30.2 37.0 31.8 23.3
Fish 32.2 25.7 65.0 28.0
Milk products (excl. butter) 52.8 65.8 72.6 66.9
Eggs 9.3 5.4 8.2 3.2
Oils and fats (incl. butter) 18.3 27.5 24.9 33.8
 Calories per day

Calories 2,111 2,533 2,040 2,200

 BWI$
GDP per capital (at factorcost) 610 895 342 444
Estimated total expenditure
 per capital on food 175.1 222.6 1/ 136.4 22/ 155.4


 1/ 1956, excluding Windward Islands.
 2/ 1959.
 Source: Data and material developed during the study and other available data.




 In view of the part played by rice in the diet both of Trinidad and Tobago and British
Guiana its income elasticity must clearly have a much lower value in these territories than
in Jamaica or the smaller islands. In British Guiana the elasticity was taken as equal to