HC Deb 09 May 1962 vol 659 cc417-20
10. Mr. Donnelly

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will make a statement on the potato supply position.

Mr. Soames

The Potato Marketing Board estimated on 13th April that stocks of home-grown main crop potatoes in Great Britain amounted to about 230,000 to 240,000 tons. Imports of main crop potatoes have so far amounted to about 90,000 tons. How long these stocks will last depends on the rate of consumption and on the level of imports of both new and main crop potatoes.

Mr. Donnelly

Is my right hon. Friend aware that I have in my hand a slip from the menu of a restaurant in Cardiff saying that owing to the potato price rise all menu items have been surcharged threepence extra? Is he aware that in South Wales potatoes were being sold singly at the weekend and that in the village school near where I live in Wales the children have been told that they will have only half quantities of potatoes? How does the right hon. Gentleman reconcile that with the fact that some of my constituents have been fined for growing too many potatoes? Does he not realise the incalculable damage that this sort of asinine rot does to the good name of the British farmer among the townspeople?

Mr. Soames

The hon. Gentleman participated in our recent debate and did me the courtesy of listening to an extremely long speech by me in which I did my best to set out all the facts of the situation, with which I believe he is well acquainted. The constituent to whom he has referred is, in fact, paying the excess levy on the acreage of potatoes that he grew in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Those were all early potatoes, and two of the years were surplus years and farmers growing extra in those years affected the price which all farmers got on the market.

Mr. Donnelly

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that that is still not good enough? There is the constituent to whom he has referred, but there are many others who have also been fined for growing potatoes in the past year. If they had not grown potatoes, the present situation would have been even worse. I should have thought that the Government should have been conferring life peerages on them instead of fines.

11. Mr. Donnelly

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will state the basis upon which potato acreage allocations are made to individual farmers by the Potato Marketing Board.

Mr. Soames

Each producer registered with the Board has a basic acreage, which is assessed by reference to actual plantings in a recent period. The Potato Marketing Scheme also provides that, in any case of hardship or unusual circumstances, or for the purpose of good husbandry, a registered producer may apply for a new or increased basic acreage. The Board has statutory powers to determine whether a given year shall be a quota year in which a registered producers' plantings may not exceed a stated proportion of his basic acreage without his becoming liable to payment of excess acreage contribution.

Mr. Donnelly

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the answer which he gave to my previous Question undermines the Answer that he has given to this one? The administration must be most unsatisfactory for us to be in this present situation of shortage. Somebody must be misdirecting arrangements. Cannot he take some positive steps to ensure that there are more flexible arrangements within the producer marketing boards? Those of us who want our producer marketing boards to be successful do not want their good name damaged amongst the townspeople.

Mr. Soames

That is not so. I refute what the hon. Gentleman has said. The Potato Marketing Board tried at the beginning of this planting season to get an acreage of about 700,000. As the hon. Gentleman knows through contact with the country, the weather was such that the people who intended to plant potatoes could not get them in. There was a shortage of acreage, and, therefore, a shortage of potatoes.

Sir L. Plummer

Is it not a fact that this year the Potato Marketing Board has decided not to institute an excess quota fine?

Mr. Soames

Yes, Sir; that is so. This will be a non-quota year.

Mr. Ridsdale

Is my right hon. Friend aware that hon. Members on this side of the House have every confidence in what he is doing about potatoes and that we realise that the hon. Member for Pembroke (Mr. Donnelly) is trying to make cheap political capital out of something which the Minister has very great difficulty in controlling—the weather?

Mr. Soames

There is a great deal in what my hon. Friend says.

Mr. Peart

Despite the intervention of the hon. Member for Harwich (Mr. Ridsdale), who obviously desires to be a P.P.S.—[HON. MEMBERS: "The hon. Gentleman was one."]—I was one before the hon. Member, though—is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is a serious potato shortage? We think that flexibility in the policy of the Potato Marketing Board could have been achieved. Is the Minister satisfied that imports are coming in properly from the countries from which he prevents them coming in?

Mr. Soames

Am I satisfied that imports are coming in properly from the countries from which I prevent them coming in? That is not happening, I trust. However, I am satisfied that the Board is making every effort to import potatoes from countries which are permitted to send them here.

Mr. Peart

What about the State of Maine, which says that its products are free from disease and that it could export to this country? Can the right hon. Gentleman make any comment about that?

Mr. Soames

From the point of view of disease, we have to be the judge of the sources from which we import potatoes.

Mr. Donnelly

In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply and in order to show the right hon. Gentleman how expensive political capital is, I beg to give notice that I shall raise this subject on the Adjournment.

Mr. Speaker

I constantly ask hon. Members to adhere to the traditional formula in these matters and not to make speeches.