Feedingstuffs

HC Deb 14 April 1948 vol 449 cc968-9

47. Mr. Spence

asked the Minister of Food the tonnage of each variety of feedingstuffs, including maize and coarse grains, allocated to Great Britain by the I.E.F.C. for the year 1947.

Dr. Summerskill

The only feedingstuff subject to allocation by I.E.F.C. is oil-cake. The United Kingdom pro visional allocation of imported oilcake for 1947 was 288,200 tons.

Mr. Spence

Can the hon. Lady clear up the point whether our allocations of oilcake control our total purchases or if we are able to buy over and above our allocation from such countries as do not belong to the I.E.F.C.?

Dr. Summerskill

No, Sir. Where a commodity is allocated it is simply an authorisation to purchase, and we are expected to keep within the limit.

48. Mr. Spence

asked the Minister of Food the tonnage of each variety of feedingstuffs, including oilcake, maize and coarse grains, received by Great Britain during 1947, showing the countries of origin.

Dr. Summerskill

As the reply contains a number of figures I will, with permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Commodity.	Quantity Long Tons.	Country of Origin.
*Maize	480,707	Argentina, Brazil and United States of America
Barley	112,944	Argentina and Australia
*Oats	105,913	Canada and United States of America
Bran and Pollards	74,245	Argentina
Rice Meal	48,803	Burma
Oilcakes	315,917	Mainly from Argentina with smaller quantities from East Africa, West Africa, China and Burma
Locust Beans	20,115	Cyprus, Crete and Portugal
Meat meal (with whale meat and bone meal)	14,068	South Georgia and British and Norwegian floating factories
Other feedingstuffs	38,910	Including—
		Dried potatoes from United States of America
		Mandioca meal from Brazil
		Herring meal from Iceland
		Maize Gluten Feed from Argentina, Holland and Belgium
Total	1,211,622
* Includes imported maize and oats used for human and industrial purposes as follows:
Maize … 553,000 tons for starch, glucose and cereal breakfast foods
Oats … 80,000 tons for oatmeal milling