Sugar Beet (Hansard, 3 July 1975)

§ 10. Mr. Shersby
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his Department's estimate of total plantings of sugar beet for the 1975–76 harvest.

§ Mr. Strang
480,300 acres.

§ Mr. Shersby
What does the Minister estimate will be the effect of a good sugar beet crop on the price of a 2 lb. packet of sugar in the autumn?

§ Mr. Strang
The hon. Gentleman will be the first to appreciate that after what happened in the sugar market last year, when, at the beginning, we were paying a CSA price of £60 a ton and in November the world price reached over £600 a ton, it would be rash for anyone to predict the effect of this year's crop on this year's sugar price.

§ Mr. Heffer
Will my hon. Friend tell the House what plans the British Sugar Corporation has for expansion in beet production? Will he indicate what effect it is likely to have on the cane sugar workers in Merseyside and elsewhere? Will he ensure that the workers in those areas are given any extra beet production for refining to maintain their jobs? Is he aware that this is a most 1663 important matter for workers in areas like Merseyside, Glasgow and London?

§ Mr. Strang
My hon. Friend has raised a number of important points. The Government welcome the British Sugar Corporation's expansion programme. Equally, we attach the highest importance to the interests of workers in the refining industry. My hon. Friend will be aware that my right hon. Friend had numerous discussions with representatives of those workers and that we continue to have their confidence.

§ Mr. Freud
What percentage increase yield does the hon. Gentleman expect to get from the 1975–76 sugar crop, and what contingency plans have been made for any shortage?

§ Mr. Strang
The basic problem in agricultural marketing is that we cannot predict what the crop will be next autumn, but it is unfortunate that plantings have been somewhat less this year as a result of the difficult soil conditions.

§ Mr. Swain
Owing to the disastrous and inevitable effect on the sugar beet crop of a late frost and the drought conditions which now exist, what forecast estimates has the Ministry made of the amount of sugar beet imports which will have to be made from European countries into Great Britain this winter to maintain our supplies?

§ Mr. Strang
My hon. Friend is absolutely right about conditions to date having been adverse for the current sugar crop. The imports which we make in the coming year will, by and large, come from those developing countries from which, traditionaly, we have imported sugar.

§ Mr. William Clark
In view of the projected increase in sugar beet production envisaged by the BSC, will the Government give a categoric assurance that the commitment that we gave to the cane sugar growers in the Caribbean and African countries still stands, and that consequently those countries can be assured of a continuing market in this country?

§ Mr. Strang
Absolutely. That is not only a British, but a Community commitment, by which we shall stand.