HC Deb 30 April 1931 vol 251 cc1812-3
71. Mr. WHITE

asked the Minister of Agriculture the estimated exportable surplus of wheat available from Canada, Australia, and India for the present and two previous cereal years, and the import requirements of Great Britain for the like period?

The MINISTER of AGRICULTURE (Dr. Addison)

As the reply contains a table of figures I propose with the hon. Member's permission to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following is the reply:

The following statement shows the exportable surplus of wheat from Canada,

Season. Canada. (a) Australia. India. Total.
Thousand tons. Thousand tons. Thousand tons. Thousand tons
1928–29 … … … … 14,000 2,980 Nil 16,980
1929–30 … … … … 8,060 2,230 Nil 10,290
1930–31 … … … … 9,850 3,880 890 14,620
(a) Figures for Canada include the surplus from the previous crop.

The net imports of wheat, including flour expressed in terms of wheat, into the United Kingdom were 5,457,000 tons in 1928–29, and 5,441,000 tons in 1929–30. With regard to the current year, it is probable that imports will be on a slightly higher scale owing to the smaller domestic crop, which was 200,000 tons less than in the two previous seasons, but the amount of the imports will partly depend on the extent to which stocks in this country are increased or diminished.