Potato Regime (Hansard, 28 January 1993)

§ 2. Mr. Dunn
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects the draft potato regime proposals to be next considered by the EC Council.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. David Curry)
The December Agriculture Council decided to consider the proposals again as soon as the European Parliament has given its opinion.

§ Mr. Dunn
With regard to the supply of potatoes from within the United Kingdom, does the Minister question, as I do, the sense of restricting what is grown here while permitting broad access for potato products from Europe?

§ Mr. Curry
My hon. Friend has a good point. At the moment there is no Community regime. The United Kingdom has its own system, based on acreage quotas and guaranteed payments. Nobody else has that system. If we moved to a Europewide regime and maintained our existing system intact, United Kingdom growers, uniquely, would face limitations while nobody else would. We should have to reflect on whether that would be in the interests of the United Kingdom as a whole.

Mr. John D. Taylor
As the Minister here, rather than a Minister at Stormont, has the responsibility of making representations on the potato industry to the European Community, and as there is a major crisis in the Northern Ireland potato industry due to poor weather conditions throughout the year, has the Minister yet made any representations to the Community about special support for that industry in Northern Ireland?

§ Mr. Curry
No, we have not. We have to discuss the future of the potato regime, which is crucial to the United Kingdom, especially as we now import more than half a million tonnes per year mainly of frozen chips. Our overwhelming priority is to settle the uncertainty that follows on the proposals, so that we all know exactly where we stand. Where we can give particular help to areas with particular problems, we shall find out what realistic opportunity there is to do so, consistent with Community rules and being fair to all producers in the United Kingdom.

§ Rev. Ian Paisley
Is the Minister not aware that in the European Parliament a resolution was passed unanimously because of what happened to the recent potato harvest both in the Irish Republic and in Northern Ireland? Is the Minister aware of what the Commissioner said, and the promise that he gave? Why are the Government so slow? Why have they not made representations when the Irish Government are doing so and are to get something for their producers?

§ Mr. Curry
The hon. Gentleman will know that one of the certainties in life is that whatever the Irish Republic gets the Northern Irish ask for the same treatment. We have an extremely good record in ensuring that we can deliver that. The hon. Gentleman will know that I have 1135 some experience of resolutions in the European Parliament. If I may say so, there are forms of persuasion that I sometimes find more persuasive.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
Who is winding up Ministers about the need to abolish the potato marketing scheme? Could it possibly be McCain or United Biscuits—food processors, and two of Britain's largest crisp producers —companies which just happen to have paid £300,000 to the Conservative party in the past two years? Are they the people who now determine Government policy in these important areas? Are they the people pushing Ministers?

§ Mr. Curry
The hon. Gentleman's conspiracy theory comes a little earlier in the day today, but we always welcome an old friend and I suppose that it is better to hear it sooner rather than later. What he says is transparent nonsense. Our concern about the present scheme is entirely due to the fact that a very large part of the growth market is in processed potato products, and that market has gone more and more to imports. We want to ensure that the investment in processed products goes into the United Kingdom. We do not want to export our jobs, our manufacturing or our acreage. Our whole policy will be governed by the need to ensure that we create a climate for investment in Britain, so that jobs come here, acreage is planted here and added value comes to the United Kingdom. That is how we can do a good job for farmers, processors and consumers, based on what we can produce ourselves.

§ Sir Peter Tapsell
Will my hon. Friend continue to keep in mind the fact that the growers of Lincolnshire, the main potato-growing area of Britain, strongly support the retention of the present potato marketing board and are deeply apprehensive about any proposal to change it to some sort of European scheme under which they feel that their interests will be sacrificed?

§ Mr. Curry
I believe that the one thing that would sacrifice their interests would be if we agreed a scheme in which everyone in the Community could plant what they wanted and there was free trade within the Community but the United Kingdom alone was pegged back by acreage quotas. That would not be fair to British farmers. At all events, we will take care that the important research and development facilities of the board, and its important marketing activities, can carry on.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
Does the Minister accept that throwing the potato industry to the free market is not a solution to anyone's problems? Will he take into account the special needs of the Scottish seed potato industry? Many of the producers and growers have invested huge sums of money recently to profit from and ensure progress under the existing system; they are telling Scottish Members that if the system is not broken it does not need fixing.

§ Mr. Curry
The system is not broken, but it has its problems, the main one being that in the main growth area of the market we have been increasingly supplied by imports. We now import 530,000 tonnes of processed products per year, and many of the chips in the great British fish and chips meal are imported.
As for seed potatoes, there is no question of a great contraction of British potato acreage in different circumstances. People are not falling over themselves to get out of growing potatoes, but we want more people to 1136 grow them. We have more varieties than many continental countries. There is a market overseas for Scottish seed potatoes because we can boast greater variety and expertise than many other countries, and we want to exploit those advantages.