HC Deb 05 April 1973 vol 854 cc601-4
14. Mr. Golding

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the percentage increase in the price of chickens between October 1964 and June 1970, and between June 1970 to the last convenient date, respectively.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mrs. Peggy Fenner)

The average retail price of a 3 lb. frozen oven-ready chicken was at the same level in June 1970 as it had been in October 1964. The price in February 1973 was 30 per cent. higher than in June 1970.

Mr. Golding

Is the Minister aware that I am glad that the Government's chickens are now coming home to roost? But I regret the price that the electorate is having to pay for them. Is the Minister aware that her answer is outrageous? Chickens have become the staple diet of many working people now that beef and other meats are beyond their purse.

Mrs. Fenner

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that there have been much higher prices for poultry feeding stuffs. In fact, the wholesale and retail margins have been as frozen as the chickens. The higher prices have gone to producers. The producers face higher food costs because of a rise in world cereal prices. The hon. Gentleman must be aware that producers cannot be insulated against such increased prices. The latest indications are that prices are now levelling off.

Mr. Charles Morrison

Whatever the price increases may be, will my hon. Friend say what the pattern of consumption of poultry has been?

Mrs. Fenner

It has been 140 per cent. up. With the world pressure on red meat, consumption has been increasing.

Mr. Jay

If the Government cannot insulate these prices against world forces, why did the Prime Minister promise that he would do so before the General Election?

Mrs. Fenner

The Prime Minister could not exactly forecast the climatic conditions which affected world cereal markets. My right hon. Friend could do so no more than the right hon. Member for Battersea, North (Mr. Jay).

16. Mr. Carter

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the price of 1 lb. of English cheddar in June 1970; and what is the latest price expressed in new pence.

Mrs. Fenner

The Department of Employment's General Index of Retail Prices shows that the average price of cheddar cheese was 18.3p per lb. on 18th June 1970 and 32.lp per lb. on 20th February, the latest date for which figures are available. Retail prices of individual varieties are not collected for the purposes of the index.

Mr. Carter

Is the Minister aware that that is an almost 100 per cent. increase since June 1970? Meat eaters have a whole range of substitutes for meat, but for vegetarians the alternatives to cheese and eggs are very limited. Will the Minister say how such an increase is justified when the wages of farm workers in that period have not increased by anything like 100 per cent.?

Mrs. Fenner

The increase in the price of cheese is due to several factors. Hon. Members will recall that butter prices rose in the early part of last year, and cheese prices rose at the same time. The prices have remained largely unchanged for more than a year. The hon. Gentleman referred to the frozen state of agricultural wages, but I remind him that in two-and-a-half years wages generally have risen by 34½ per cent.

Mr. Body

Will my hon. Friend say how successful we have been in excluding Canadian cheddar, of which there is a surplus, now that we have increased the levy on it to more than £100 a ton?

Mrs. Fenner

Cheese producers have been stocking cheese for a longer period so that it will reach the state of maturity of Canadian cheddar.

Mr. Fernyhough

Will the Parliamentary Secretary explain how it comes about that her Department says that the increase in meat prices is due to world demand— in other words, that the demand exceeds the supply—whereas there is no EEC country, including Britain, which does not have huge stocks of cheese, so that one would expect the market forces to apply in the opposite direction?

Mrs. Fenner

I have said that we have a rather larger stock of cheese at the moment, but it is clearly not an excessive stock. Nevertheless, it is open to the Food Panel of the Price Commission to investigate the price of cheese without reference to the Ministry.

Mr. Buchan

Does the hon. Lady realise that she has just made one of the most shocking statements about food that we have ever heard in the House? Is she saying that the price of one of our traditional foods has virtually doubled since the Government came into power? What is happening to the inquiry which the Ministry is to undertake on the stockpiling of cheese? Far from stocks of cheese being only slightly higher, they are now at a record level. I hope that she will not say, as she said about frozen chickens, that the high price is due to climatic conditions or inefficient forecasting by the Prime Minister.

Mrs. Fenner

We are keeping the situation, including the level of prices, under review. I have read the Press reports, but there is no question of a formal inquiry having been put in hand by my Department. I reiterate that it will be open to the Food Panel of the Price Commission to investigate cheese prices.

17. Mr. Ewing

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a further statement on the anticipated egg shortage and the consequent price increase.

Mrs. Fenner

Although eggs are not in short supply, production has fallen from the very high levels reached in 1972. Market prices for eggs tend to change markedly in response to relatively small changes in supply, and prices are therefore higher than usual.

Mr. Ewing

The hon. Lady is very complacent today. Is she not aware of her hon. Friend's reply on Monday, to the effect that we are producing 1 million dozen eggs per week fewer this year than we were last year? Was that not followed on Tuesday by an announcement of an increase in the price of eggs and today by the announcement of staggering increases in the profits of the Eastwood Poultry Company? In view of the reply she gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Mr. Golding) about chickens, is the hon. Lady aware that she is in serious danger of being branded as the most expensive hen in Great Britain?

Mrs. Fenner

I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's flippancy on this subject. I am not in the least complacent. I recognise that egg prices have risen, but they were rather low during last year and this may have had something to do with fewer eggs being produced now. Market demand is very strong as Easter approaches, but it is likely to fall, with the price, after Easter.

Mr. R. C. Mitchell

What climatic conditions affect the price of eggs?

Mrs. Fenner

The cost of feeding stuffs affects the price of eggs, and a poor return to the producer is not conducive to the production of eggs.

Mr. Winterton

Does not my hon. Friend agree that many of the problems of increasing prices which face us have arisen because hon. and right hon. Gentlemen on the Opposition benches chickened out of their responsiblities in 1969 and 1970?

Mrs. Fenner

Some Opposition chickens are coming home to roost.

Mr. David Clark

Will the Minister answer the Question and make a statement on the price of eggs? Has she seen the figures given in yesterday's Daily Mail to the effect that the price of a dozen eggs has gone up 10p since the beginning of the freeze?

Mrs. Fenner

Yes, I recognise that the price has gone up. Last Question Time I said that from February 1963 to February 1973 the cost of standard eggs had remained exactly the same. The price has risen over the last few weeks, for reasons which I have already explained at length.