Poultry (Hansard, 11 April 1974)

§ 18. Mr. Biffen
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consideration has been given to providing relief for the United Kingdom poultry producers on account of high feed costs on grounds analogous to the assistance recently announced for the pig industry.

§ Mr. Buchan
I am not satisfied that such action is called for at the moment. I am, however, keeping the matter under review, and indeed my right hon. Friend met a deputation from the industry yesterday to discuss the position.

§ Mr. Biffen
Just in case this topic has been overlooked in the perpetual pilgrimages that we understand Sir Henry Plumb is making to the Ministry of Agriculture, will the hon. Gentleman confirm that in fact feeding costs are precisely the same in the poultry industry as they are for pig producers, and that, therefore, the poultry industry is faced with the implications of having to sell its product against subsidised competition? Is he aware that there is a widespread sentiment that, at current producer prices for eggs and poultry, costs are barely being covered?

§ Mr. Buchan
I know the problem. In general the hon. Gentleman is correct. The problem of feeding stuffs faces the whole of the livestock industry, but particularly pig and poultry producers. We are keeping an eye on the situation. We should like to achieve greater stability of production in relation to demand than there has sometimes been in the past, with the more rapid cyclical turnover in the poultry industry. We are keeping the matter under review.

§ Sir D. Renton
As my hon. Friend has asked that the poultry industry should be treated by analogy with the pig industry, will the hon. Gentleman bear in mind that the help recently given through the EEC to the pig industry, welcome though it was, is not preventing that industry from declining, which is contrary to the interests of not only producers but consumers? Is he aware that unless this decline is stopped immediately, the economy will suffer badly from the heavy slaughtering of pigs over the next few weeks?

§ Mr. Buchan
We are again moving rather far from the Question. To a large extent, the argument that I was putting up last year, as the right hon. and learned Gentleman will remember, related to the problem of the cost of feeding stuffs. That has been partly taken care of by the Price Review under the Conservative Government and also by our discussions in Brussels, followed by the injection of £15 million into the pig industry. The complaint of the hon. Member for Oswestry (Mr. Biffen) is that that did not happen to the poultry industry, but I am keeping the matter under review.

§ Mr. Pym
I do not wish to be in any way offensive to the hon. Gentleman, but is he aware that his replies sound extraordinarily complacent? Does he not know that the consequences of the rise in food costs, affecting not only poultry but pigs and beef, are extremely serious but that it sounds, certainly to my hon. and right hon. Friends, that the hon. Gentleman has not grasped just how serious the present situation is?

§ Mr. Buchan
I must say that that is a bit rich, coming from a member of the Cabinet in the former administration. We have been in office for only five weeks, and agriculture does not alter all that much in five weeks. If there is a basic problem facing us, it must lie at the door of the Opposition.

§ Mr. Pym
Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the real cause is the result of his right hon. Friend's negotiations in Brussels? I know that his right hon. Friend was very pleased with that result, but the truth of the matter is that that is what has caused the problem, and that is what the hon. Gentleman does not seem to understand.

§ Mr. Buchan
The right hon. Gentleman should know that we were endeavouring—I believe successfully—to harmonise the interests of the consumer and the needs of the producer. That is what we regarded as our duty and that is a duty that we have fulfilled.
The problem facing agriculture was the rapid rise in costs of £600 million or £700 million, resulting in our being confronted with a review in the middle of an election. That rapid rise occurred during the last administration. We had to deal with the situation as we found it. We decided that doing so would not be at the cost only of the consumer in this country, and that we had to secure the interests and the needs of the farmer while protecting the interests of the consumer. We therefore embarked on discussions in Brussels, with the object of keeping down prices for consumers while seeking means of injecting capital into the beef industry and the pig industry. The right hon. Gentleman should be congratulating us and apologising for his Government's record.