§ 2. Mr. Doddsasked the Minister of Food what quantity of fish landed at British ports this year has been sent to the glue works or turned into fish manure.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeI have no information about the specific quantities of fish used for conversion into glue or fish manure. Some 14,000 tons of unsold and condemned white fish were processed into animal feedingstuffs in the period January to the end of May this year out of total landings of approximately 320,000 tons; also some 13,000 tons of surplus herring were converted into oil and meal in the same period.
§ Mr. DoddsIs it not well known that big quantities of fish that are brought into the ports do not get to the housewives? In view of the ineffectiveness of the White Fish Authority in this respect, what are the Government doing to see that more fish goes to the housewives at a cheaper rate, that the middlemen make profits less easily and that fishing grounds are not over-fished for the obtaining of fish meal and manure?
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThe proportions are not very high. The total is just over 4 per cent., and I am informed that a lot of that fish was soft-roed cod, which is not easily frozen and is not very popular. Taking the average quantity, the proportion is very much lower than that figure. In some months there is very hot weather and the figure is very much higher.
Air Commodore HarveyThis is the third consecutive year in which large quantities of fish have had to be used for manure. Will the Minister take into account the fact that considerable foreign landings are still coming into Britain, that 751 this process is still going on? When is the White Fish Authority going to show something for their year's work?