5. Mr. W. E. Garrettasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total consumption of potatoes for the months of January, February, March and April, 1982; and what percentage of the total was imported.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Alick Buchanan-Smith)Approximately 2.1 million tonnes of potatoes moved into human consumption in the United Kingdom during the period January-April 1982. Imports accounted for about 19 per cent. of this total.
Mr. GarrettDoes the Minister accept that those figures show that the much-maligned potato still plays a substantial part in our diet? Will the Minister monitor carefully the attempt to import inferior types of potato from our Common Market partners, and make every effort to ensure that the gap between the winter and summer crops in the United Kingdom is still filled by potatoes from our traditional sources? Those potatoes are of a high quality and often come from outside the Common Market.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe British potato is not maligned. It is an excellent food and is increasingly used as a base for other processed food products. I wish good fortune to all those who operate in that area. We have sought to encourage greater awareness on the part of producers in supplying to the processing industry as well as for direct human consumption. There is considerable scope for replacing imports there.