HC Deb 08 July 1946 vol 425 cc26-7
55. Mr. Hugh Fraser

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he will now consider allocating feedingstuffs to keepers of poultry not on the basis of a 1939 registration but on that of the number of eggs delivered to egg-packing stations, where such stations exist.

The Minister of Agriculture (Mr. Thomas Williams)

No, Sir. As I intimated in my reply to the hon. Member for Woodbridge (Mr. Hare) on 1st April, the allocation of feedingstuffs to poultry keepers on the basis of the numbers of eggs delivered to packing stations has been considered and found to be impracticable.

Mr. Fraser

Is the Minister aware that some of the people who were registered in 1939 must now be dead? Is he further aware that if he were to adopt such a procedure as is suggested, it would prove a serious deterrent to the black market in eggs now prevalent throughout the country?

Mr. Williams

I fully appreciate the point that the hon. and gallant Member has in mind, but I would remind him that the number of eggs produced does not depend wholly on rationed foodstuffs issued to poultry keepers but on the total quantity of foodstuffs, including unrationed food, that can be grown or procured by the poultry farmers. Further, it would be necessary to segregate the rations for birds kept for egg production from those for birds kept for breeding or destined for slaughter. It is a wholly impracticable proposition.

Mr. W. J. Brown

Is not the Minister aware that many poultry keepers have diminished the number of poultry they keep, and they are now receiving rations altogether out of proportion to the number of fowls actually on the premises, and that, conversely, people in the same way of business in 1939 who have expanded their poultry receive a ration utterly inadequate for their needs? If the present suggestion is not the right one, can the Minister think up something a little less out of date than 1939?

Mr. Williams

I am satisfied that the present system is the most equitable one that can be found.

59. Wing-Commander Roland Robinson

asked the Minister of Agriculture whether he has yet considered the resolutions passed by the Lancashire Federation of Poultry Societies requesting that adequate compensation should be paid to egg producers for the losses caused to them by the recent cuts in feedingstuffs; and what action he proposes to take in this matter.

Mr. T. Williams

Yes, Sir, but I am not in a position to say whether it will be possible to meet the representations of these poultry societies.

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