§ The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Cledwyn Hughes)With your permission, Mr. Speaker, and that of the House, I should like to make a statement about the Bacon Market Sharing Understanding.
Negotiations for a renewed Bacon Market Sharing Understanding have now been completed and the new Understanding will be signed shortly.
The basic aim of the renewed Understanding will be to provide for the orderly marketing of bacon in the United Kingdom and to preserve stable prices at levels reasonable to both producers and consumers.
There are two main changes. First, there is no longer a specific percentage share of the market laid down for the United Kingdom. Instead, the United Kingdom, after consultation with the Bacon Market Council, will determine each year not only the total quantity of bacon required on the United Kingdom market, but also the expected level of bacon production in the United Kingdom. The difference between these figures will be shared among the exporting countries.
Secondly, the Understanding has been strengthened to ensure in a more positive way than in the present Understanding that our suppliers market in an orderly and a regular manner, as our own industry will also be expected to do.
The new Understanding takes effect on 1st April this year and will run for a term of three years. The situation will then be further reviewed.
The total market requirement for the first 12 months is 639,000 tons and the expected level of bacon production in the United Kingdom is 233,600 tons, an increase of about 15,000 tons on this year's estimated level. I am making a complete list of the tonnages for 1969–70 available now in the library and I shall circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
1582 As soon as the Understanding has been signed, the full text, together with the letters continuing bilateral understandings with Denmark and the Irish Republic, will be published as a White Paper.
§ Mr. GodberThe flexibility which the Minister has just announced for the home producer is to be welcomed so long as it is flexibility to raise rather than to lower the home share. May I ask the right hon. Gentleman one or two questions?
The right hon. Gentleman referred specifically to consultation with the Bacon Market Council. Could he make clear that consultation will take place after the Price Review each year, not before, so that it will be upon a firm basis of understanding of the home producers' prospects?
Secondly, will the right hon. Gentleman agree that this agreement can help the home producer only if an adequate incentive is given in the forthcoming Price Review?
Thirdly, will the right hon. Gentleman further agree that the figure for home production which he hopes to achieve in 1969–70 is only just about getting back to the figure for 1964–65 when we left office?
§ Mr. HughesI will bear in mind the right hon. Gentleman's suggestion about the Bacon Council's meeting following the Price Review.
On the second part of the right hon. Gentleman's question, as he is aware, this is a matter for the Review, although it is worth remembering that this Government, through the bacon stabilisation arrangement, have already made a substantial contribution to the industry.
On the third part of the right hon. Gentleman's question, the bacon curing industry is making substantial progress under the arrangement which the present Government have set afoot.
§ Mr. Peter MillsWill the Minister bear in mind that if we are to have a larger share of the home market the housewife and the consumer must have high-quality bacon and that this means that the British curer and farmer have to produce not only the right sort of pig, but the right sort of bacon? Will he give every encouragement towards this end both in incentives to the farmer and 1583 the encouragement to the curer to see that the right sort of bacon is produced?
§ Mr. HughesI am anxious to encourage both the farmer and the bacon producer. There are producers who, as far as quality and price are concerned, are as good as anyone in the world, but I agree that the general standard needs to be raised.
§ Mr. ShinwellMay I ask my right hon. Friend whether the statement he has made in any way conflicts with the agricultural policy associated with the Common Market, in particular, his statement that the agreement, when ratified by the various parties to it, will last three years? Is there any possibility of revision so as to get into the Common Market?
§ Mr. HughesThese are purely hypothetical matters that my right hon. Friend has raised. The Understanding, which, I hope, will be signed before the end of the month, is certainly not in conflict with any agreement to which this country is a party.
§ Mr. HoosonWhile I generally welcome the agreement, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he has in mind a fixed percentage of increase for the home producer? Is it to be at the rate of 15,000 tons a year over three years, or is that expected to be the figure for the first year?
§ Mr. HughesIf the hon. and learned Member will read carefully what I said, he will see that the basic difference is that under the old Understanding there was a British percentage share which could only be exceeded or changed under certain definite circumstances. Now, under the new Understanding, there will not be a United Kingdom percentage, but we will simply declare our estimated production. It is now up to the British curing industry.
§ Mr. JoplingRegardless of specific incentives in this year's Price Review, will the right hon. Gentleman tell us what the trends for the future are from our home production sources? If next year's production from British farmers is to be a little less than 37 per cent. of the market, what sort of percentage does the right hon. Gentleman envisage in the years beyond?
§ Mr. HughesUnder this Understanding there is no percentage at all for the British product. This is the basic new principle for the new Understanding. An estimate is made at the beginning of each year of the amount of bacon the British producer can produce. The British producer is free to produce what he can, but he must compete as to quality and price with imported supplies.
§ Mr. PeytonCould the right hon. Gentleman go as far as this? Does he say that as a result of the new arrangement he announced today the British bacon producer, assuming that the curing industry can play its part, will have a larger share of the market than he has had to date?
§ Mr. HughesIf he competes as to quality and price there is no reason why he should not get a progressively larger share of the market.
| Following is the list of tonnages: | |||
| Tons | |||
| United Kingdom | … | … | 233,600 |
| Denmark | … | … | 302,850 |
| Poland | … | … | 50,310 |
| Irish Republic | … | … | 28,180 |
| Sweden | … | … | 11,010 |
| Netherlands | … | … | 8,160 |
| Hungary | … | … | 2,380 |
| Rumania | … | … | 1,500* |
| Yugoslavia | … | … | 1,010 |
| Total | … | … | 639,000 |
| *If Rumania decides to participate. |