----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, 2004-07-17 11:50
Subject: [USMA:30453] U S dairy
Hello does anyone
have any idea what the US dairy industry will do when the FPLA will allow
metric only labeling?
My guess is they will
do absolutely nothing. It will be a totally meaningless event as far as
they are concerned.
Do you think they
will do a hard metric conversion lets say from one gallon to 4 L, or do a soft
conversion to 3.8 L? When the dairy industry in Canada went metric they
did a hard conversion from 1gal. to 4 L.
That works against
marketing principles. You don't give more unless you plan to charge
more. And if you charge more you risk upsetting your customers,
especially at a time when dairy pricing is now a high point. If
anything, they would reduce the size to 3 L, like one company did when the
introduced a new 3 L user friendly container. It flopped when the
company charged more for it then the gallon.
They had to
change the size of the container because 4 L is smaller then the imperial
gallon.
If it had been larger,
they would not have gone to 4 L. Now I understand they downsized again
to 3.8 L.
Are there any more
states getting close to allowing metric labeling on products controled at the
state level? Does anybody know if Washington state allows metric
labeling? In states that allow metric only labeling can products like
bags of potatoes be labeled in metric only? Thanks for any info.
I doubt any more will adopt
the UPLR and we will have to wait until the FPLA is amended before we
can adopt metric sizes. Don't expect a rush to metric only
packaging. The main advantage for the law change is to remove the excuse
of the TABD who claims the EU law conflicts with the US law.
John
Mercer.
Euric
