Milk Marketing Board (Hansard, 18 July 1991)

§ 5. Mr. Strang
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his policy towards the milk marketing board; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Gummer
I welcome the milk marketing board's decision to submit plans for transforming itself to co-operative status.

§ Mr. Strang
Does the Minister recognise that many of us dispute the view that the abandonment of the current milk marketing scheme would be in the overall interest of milk producers? Does he deny that for farms that are relatively remote from major population centres, any curtailment of the guarantees currently provided by the milk marketing board could be catastrophic?

§ Mr. Gummer
The milk marketing board proposes that it should make some changes, because it recognises the major problem—the hon. Gentleman must come to terms with it—that more than 35 per cent. of the liquid milk now bought is legally outside the scheme and that supermarkets, which are major selling agencies, can buy their milk from countries that are, naturally, outside the scheme. The milk marketing board is trying to produce a package that will better protect the producer and meet the needs of the consumer. If the hon. Member for Edinburgh, East (Mr. Strang) is opposed to the change and does not agree that the milk marketing board should seek what it believes to be the best answer, he is proposing a scheme in which he feels that he knows better than the board. I am not prepared to say that.

§ Mr. Conway
My right hon. Friend will know that the majority of Shropshire dairy farmers support the need for change and the view of the milk marketing board. Has my right hon. Friend read the letter in Farming News from the hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark)? Is not it surprising that he is taking a more stick-in-the-mud attitude which will not help dairy farmers improve their incomes or businesses?

§ Mr. Gummer
My hon. Friend may have seen that the shadow Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food wrote in The House Magazine that he did not think that there should be changes in the milk marketing scheme. He, too, thinks that he knows better than the milk marketing board. I warn him directly that if the British people find that the milk marketing scheme falls about the ears of the producers because changes were not made in time, they will know who to blame for the disaster that would befall our milk producers. The hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark) may laugh, but it is he who said that changes in the market should not be met by changes in the milk marketing scheme.

§ Mr. Skinner
Does the Minister agree that there is little that the milk marketing board can do for the two dairy farmers in Bolsover who have had to cease production 488 because of the dioxin levels in the milk in that area? Will he guarantee that while he is arguing for the polluter to pay—we all accept that—somebody should compensate those farmers in the meantime if Coalite or any other polluter takes the matter to court? I suggest that some compensation should be paid and account should be taken of the 25 other farms that may be affected in the future.

§ Mr. Gummer
The hon. Gentleman rightly brings to the attention of the House the plight of two dairy farmers, both of whom I have met on their farms. I know very well how seriously they are affected. I asked the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) whether I could visit those farmers since they are in his constituency and he kindly allowed me to do so.
The most important thing is that we are discussing with those farmers ways in which we can experiment on their farms to try to find the source of the pollution. During that time we shall be paying them for the facilities that they will provide and for the fact that they are keeping their animals for us and enabling us to do that research. The research will take about two or three months and, during that time, I hope that we shall be able to understand more closely how to proceed. The hon. Member for Bolsover has been kind enough to accept that this is a complex matter of fault and that we shall have to search for a long time before we find an answer. In the meantime, we shall be helping the farmers as far as we can.