§ 7. Mr. Geoffrey Cooperasked the Minister of Food on what basis it was decided to pay £10 a ton more for supplies of sugar from foreign sources than the prices paid to our own colonies, including Jamaica.
§ Mr. WebbWe have agreed to purchase the whole of the exportable surplus of sugar from Commonwealth countries up to the end of next year. This year's price was agreed, as giving a reasonable 9 return to producers, with Commonwealth representatives last December. Commonwealth supplies, however, are not sufficient to cover all our commitments and we therefore have to buy foreign sugar at the open market price, which at present is above the Commonwealth price. But our arrangements with Commonwealth producers are based on longterm guarantees, which give them security against falls in price, other than such as could be justified by a fall in production costs.
§ Mr. CooperIs my right hon. Friend aware that recent information indicates that the disparity between the prices is as much as from £22 to £25 a ton? Can he justify the policy of cutting the price paid for Commonwealth grown sugar and then making contributions from the Colonial Development and Welfare Fund and, at the same time, paying high prices to Cuba?
§ Mr. WebbI am rather surprised that that question should come from this side of the House. [HON. MEMBERS: "The right hon. Gentleman is learning."] The whole point of these guarantees is to give long-term security to the producers; but they cannot have it both ways: they cannot have the world price when the world price is high and have a guaranteed price when the world price is down. The whole point is to give a long-term security on which they can base their long-term programmes of production.
§ Mr. CooperWill my right hon. Friend agree that the intention is to make the Colonies as far as possible self-supporting?