§ 55. Mr. Russellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the fact that the notional world price of sugar affects only about 10 per cent. of our sugar purchases, if he will amend the Sugar Act, 1956, to enable him to give directions to the Sugar Board to vary the price of sugar sold by them by only one-tenth of each fluctuation in the world price.
§ Mr. GodberNo, Sir. This would disrupt the free market in sugar, the establishment of which is one of the main purposes of the Sugar Act.
§ Mr. Russellis my hon. Friend aware that there has been violent fluctuation in the price of sugar over the last few weeks, the net result of which has been an increase of 45s. a ton since 31st January, and does he realise that this is causing some of our food manufacturing firms to lose export markets? Ought not something to be done to make the price of sugar rather more stable than it is now?
§ Mr. GodberI cannot quite accept that this rise will have caused firms to lose export markets, because it is in fact the world price of sugar about which we are talking. In fact, the operation of the Sugar Act has perhaps been complicated by the sudden and unexpected rise in the price of sugar, but over the long term this will be ironed out by means of distribution payments which, no doubt, will at some future stage become operative.