§ 9. Mr. Heathcoat-Amoryasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has plans to allow interchange between direct sellers and wholesalers under the milk quota scheme.
§ Mr. JoplingComplete interchangeability is not permitted by the existing Community legislation. I have been pressing strongly for this at meetings in Brussels for some time, and this week the Commission put forward proposals which go some way towards meeting our needs. I shall now seek certain improvements on the proposals. In the meantime, I have introduced arrangements whereby a producer who has more wholesale quota than he needs but not enough direct sales quota, or vice versa, can apply to the Milk Marketing Board to exchange quota with a producer in the opposite position.
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryI thank my right hon. Friend for his reply and for his evident concern about the matter. Is he aware that many direct sellers are facing superlevy payments, not because they are producing too much milk, but because they are selling too much milk to the public? Does he agree that regulations designed to prevent cheating in Italy and elsewhere are having a damaging and perverse effect on the British market?
§ Mr. JoplingI am aware of those problems, which is why I have been raising this issue in the Agriculture Council since July, and why I was especially glad when the Commission appeared to be making some moves earlier this week to assist us in this matter.
§ Mr. WigleyGiven the right of a producer who owns two holdings simultaneously to transfer a quota from one to another, what safeguards are there to stop producers, wholesalers or large companies from buying quotas, to the detriment of whole areas that may be in a disadvantageous position?
§ Mr. JoplingThe hon. Gentleman's question is rather wide of the original question, which related to interchange of direct and wholesale quotas. However, I shall try to answer his question. If the hon. Gentleman reads the regulations, he will see that the quota is attached to the land and that the principal way in which it can pass from one person to another is if the ownership or tenancy of the land changes.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggDoes my right hon. Friend accept that because a direct seller can sell only what he produces, and produces only what he can sell, there is no merit in restricting him, and that the lifting of a restriction would not make a substantial increase in the surpluses? Will he, therefore, treat the removal of these quota restrictions as a major priority?
§ Mr. JoplingI forgot to say that that has been my major priority since the summer. If I may correct my hon. Friend, the restriction makes no alteration to the total amount produced. An interchange would take place in a mixed business between one type and another type of quota, within an overall amount, which stays constant. I am extremely pleased that, at last, with the new Commission we have a little movement on that important matter.
§ Mr. Home RobertsonThere is universal support for what the Minister seeks to do. Will he explain precisely how and when the proposals to which he referred in his written reply to the hon. Member for Gainsborough and Horncastle (Mr. Leigh) will be implemented?
§ Mr. JoplingThe procedure which the Commission has proposed to deal with the matter is cumbersome, would only operate within a single 12-month period, and would have to be repeated each subsequent year. The details need to be examined carefully before we assume that it will be workable. The special committee on agriculture will consider this during the next few weeks. I hope that the matter will come back to the Council at its February meeting, and that we can settle it as soon as possible.