Rationing 1947). Tea was still on ration until 1952. In 1953 rationing of sugar and eggs ended, and in 1954, all rationing finally ended when cheese and meats came off ration. Sugar was again rationed in 1974 after Caribbean producers began selling to the more lucrative United States market. Many centralized planned economies introduced a peacetime rationing system due to food shortages in the postwar period. North Korea and China did so in the 1970s and 1980s, Communist Romania during the 1980s, the Soviet Union in 1990–1991, and from 1962-present in Cuba. A good example of this system was Poland. In
Grain rationing in China However demand exceeded supply and the agricultural sector produced very inefficiently. The government tried to solve this problem by introducing a grain rationing system, combining consumer rationing and compulsory purchases from producers. The gradual development of a free market put an end to the rationing system and introduced dual prices. This is where the price-scissors phenomena emerged. Figures assume that there are only two sectors (rural and urban) producing two goods (manufactures and food) and that the supply of the two goods is fixed. The amount of food that a peasant household will sell in exchange for manufactured goods can