Food Surplus

HC Deb 22 January 1987 vol 108 cc1009-12

1. Mr. Powley

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what further action is being taken to reduce surpluses of food in Europe, beyond that announced on 17 December.

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Michael Jopling)

I continue to take every opportunity to promote necessary reforms of common agricultural policy regimes which are for products in surplus or which involve excessive expenditure.

Mr. Powley

Will my right hon. Friend accept the congratulations of the whole House on the settlement that he recently achieved in distributing surpluses of butter, beef, milk and sugar? Does he agree that this is a practical demonstration of a caring Government? Will he tell the House how he intends to achieve the distribution of the food surpluses and when that distribution will take place? Will he also assure me that constituents in Norwich will receive their allocation of the surpluses?

Mr. Jopling

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for his kind words. We are moving as fast as we can to make this food available. I cannot say exactly when it will happen in Norwich, but we hope that the first food will be made available next week. Only today I heard from the Commissioner's office in Brussels that, subject to availabiltiy, the products concerned are to be provided to a collection point convenient to the organisation—that is, the charity—in the quantities and in a form that it can use, and all reasonable costs up to that point will be borne by FEOGA.

Mr. Hardy

Has there not been the most astonishing negligence on the part of the Government in their preparations to deal with this nettle of surpluses? What steps has the Minister taken to ensure that, when the nettle is grasped, Britain and British farmers will not be stung far more than their continental competitors?

Mr. Jopling

As the hon. Gentleman's question was rather vague, I am not too sure whether he was referring to the food that we are making available or to the general agreement that we made in December. The December settlement was an extremely good one for Britain. We were able to preserve many of the most valuable parts of our support system, not least the continuation for two years of the beef variable premium scheme.

Mr. Shersby

I welcome the scheme to distribute EEC food stocks to those in need, but why is it proposed to transport thousands of tonnes of sugar from intervention stocks stored in 50 kg bags in Italy when there is an adequate supply of sugar in Britain to enable British companies to supply consumers with 1 kg bags? Also, how is it proposed that the charities concerned will distribute the stocks of meat and butter that are held in cold storage?

Mr. Jopling

I am glad to tell my hon. Friend that we had our first meeting with the charities on Tuesday—the day that the Council of Ministers agreed the matter. We have had a further meeting with the charities today and they are enthusiastic about making the scheme work. In relation to sugar, the plans are still being worked out, so I think that my hon. Friend is a little premature.

Mr. Tony Banks

Has the Minister seen the amazing story that Lord Avebury wishes to donate his body to Battersea Dogs Home?

Mr. Speaker

Order. Is this a food surplus?

Mr. Banks

It is indeed, Mr. Speaker. In the event of this practice catching on, will the Minister give an undertaking that we shall not have an EEC mountain of dead Liberals?

Mr. Jopling

As I have been in the House a little longer than the hon. Gentleman, I had the misfortune to sit here with the noble Lord. Having heard what he had to say when he was in this House, no nonsense that he talks now comes as any surprise to me whatsoever.

Mr. Alexander

I do not wish to embarass my right hon. Friend, but does not my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Powley) have a point? What guarantee can I give my constituents in Newark that any of the surpluses will reach them, and soon?

Mr. Jopling

I had the great pleasure of addressing farmers in my hon. Friend's constituency only a very short time ago. We hope to have the food moving next week. We are awaiting the final rules and regulations from the Commission. Until we receive them, we are not in a position to move. My hon. Friend may have read in the press, however, that my right hon. Friend the Minister of State was present when the first butter was taken out of the cold store yesterday to start the thawing out process.

Dr. Godman

Is it not economically stupid to accept sugar imported from Italy when we have enough sugar in Britain to supply people in need? There is a cane sugar refinery in my constituency that would be able very effectively to package and distribute sugar in 1 kg bags.

Mr. Jopling

As there is no sugar in intervention stores in this country, no plans have been finalised as to how the scheme will work in relation to sugar, but I shall bear in mind what the hon. Gentleman has just told us.

Mr. Gale

I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend's announcement, although why the elderly and those in need should be denied access to wine and cheese I am not quite sure, as in some parts of the Community they are regarded as staple diet. My right hon. Friend said that the food would be distributed through charitable agencies. As many people are unable to get to those agencies, will he ensure that there is adequate publicity to make sure that those in need receive the goods that will become available?

Mr. Jopling

Perhaps I can correct my hon. Friend. Cheese is part of the scheme [HON. MEMBERS: "What about wine?"] We can all make jokes about wine. They have been made for many years in this House. As for the rest of my hon. Friend's question, we shall do our utmost to get things moving as soon as we can.

Mr. Foulkes

Is the Minister aware that this morning I was in touch with my successors at Age Concern, Scotland and that they were under the impression that the scheme involved the delivery of all the foodstuffs to centres where there were cooking facilities, with the implication that meals or cooked food would be provided for the elderly and those in need? Our understanding, however, and the impression created by the Minister, is that food will be delivered to individual old people. Will the Minister clear up that point? Will deliveries be made to the homes of elderly people and those in need, or will those involved have to go to food centres and have it doled out to them as though it were some kind of poor law soup kitchen?

Mr. Jopling

Many of the hon. Gentleman's colleagues have asked for this food to be made available to needy people. I am sorry that when we have such a scheme the only thing that the hon. Gentleman can do is to carp about it. We are hoping to distribute this food to people through, for instance, the meals on wheels service and in other ways. We are working as quickly and as hard as we can with the charities responsible for doing this. I remind the hon. Gentleman of the statement that I received earlier today from the Commissioner's office. It said that the food would be provided at a collection point convenient to the charity in quantities and in a form that it could use.

Mr. Harris

In looking to the future and devising means of controlling surpluses, will my right hon. Friend reject out of hand the crazy suggestion by the Leader of the SDP for a two-tier system for grain? Has my right hon. Friend taken note of the immediate reaction of the president of the National Farmers Union, Mr. Simon Gourlay, who told the right hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dr. Owen) that he did not even begin to comprehend the SDP leader's scheme and that it would lead to the annihilation of British farming?

Mr. Jopling

I think that my hon. Friend has repeated almost exactly the words of the president of the National Farmers Union about the extraordinary comments made in the Bledisloe lecture by the leader of the SDP. My only comment is that it must have been the most damaging policy proposal in living memory by any party in this country.

Mr. John

Understandably, the House does not yet have details of the food distribution scheme, but am I right in understanding that the total amount allocated for the scheme Europewide is £38 million? If that is right, it means that our share, both for the amount of food and for the cost of preparation of that food into a form in which it can be distributed, is about £3 million.

Mr. Jopling

The Commission announcement earlier this week said that there would be a review if the cost of the scheme appeared to be going beyond 50 million ecus, which in pounds sterling is not far from the figure that the hon. Gentleman mentioned. There is no expecific allocation to any one country. At the moment it is on a first-come-first-served basis. I do not think that any other Community country could show that it is further ahead with its plans than we are.

Mr. Bill Walker

Has my right hon. Friend yet had an opportunity to study in detail the proposals by the Labour party, which seem designed to remove the surpluses by levying a rates tax on agricultural land? In Scotland that would certainly be a most effective way of driving farmers off the land.

Mr. Jopling

I am glad that my hon. Friend raised that matter. While the Labour party proposal does not compete for one moment with the horrors for the farming industry contained in the speech by the SDP leader the other day, I hope that our farmers will look carefully at the implications of the Labour party's policy on the re-rating of agricultural land, the nationalisation of agricultural land and stringent new planning policies.

Mr. Maclennan

Does the Minister not recognise that his existing policy on cereals, relying as it does upon continuing high levels of production, and his record of total failure to bring supply and demand into anything like balance, is a disastrous policy which fails to discriminate between users and producers and has not protected British farmers? Is it not time that he brought new thinking to the problem of surplus cereal disposal?

Mr. Jopling

I suppose that the hon. Gentleman was one of the architects of his right hon. Friend's absurd speech. The leader of his party said that the vast majority of grain farmers in the community would be unaffected. He did not say that 44,000 of the 94,000 United Kingdom producers would be affected. That is a most discriminatory policy for British agriculture. It means that annual revenue for the average United Kingdom grain producer with 42 hectares of cereals will drop by £6,000 a year.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

Order. I have allowed a long run of questions on this because of the implications for hon. Members' constituents, but we must now move on more rapidly.