Support Policies (Prices) (Hansard, 25 March 1993)

§ 5. Mrs. Gorman
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what effects agriculture support policies have on the prices charged to consumers.

§ Mr. Gummer
The consumer will benefit from the move to lower support prices, which form the basis of the recent CAP reform.

§ Mrs. Gorman
Is my right hon. Friend aware of the work of Dr. Brian Burkitt, a specialist on EC finances at Bradford university, who has produced a report that says that most of the £10 billion net that we have contributed went to the CAP? He also tells us in that report that for every £3 spent by the British people on food, £1 could be saved if we were to open our markets to food imports from other parts of the world. Is that not a better way to put a bit of butter on people's bread than paying out to the farmers?

§ Mr. Gummer
I hope that my hon. Friend would not wish the farmers of Essex in and surrounding her excellent constituency to find themselves unable to look after the land or to produce the food to which our hon. Friend the Member for Littleborough and Saddleworth (Mr. Dickens) referred earlier. I hope that my hon. Friend will accept that we are proud of what our farmers do in producing a high proportion of the food that we eat. We want to encourage them to sell more in the new home market of the single market. I know that my hon. Friend will want to support us in doing that, through her support for the Maastricht treaty.

Mr. Alan W. Williams
Does the Minister recognise that there is considerable public hostility to the CAP, especially as so many of its resources are devoted to the storage and disposal of unwanted surpluses, and when 80 per cent. of its resources go to the 20 per cent. richest farmers? Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that money needs to be redirected towards environmental protection, improving the landscape and more extensive agriculture, all of which would help to support more small farmers?

§ Mr. Gummer
Surely the hon. Gentleman, who represents an agricultural constituency, has noticed that, in the CAP reform, the British Government were able to secure a wholehearted change from the original proposals so that environmental improvement is now at the heart of that policy. That is a British achievement and I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman, even if he is partisan in other things, would wish to congratulate the Government on that success.