Food Sales Abroad (Hansard, 24 March 1994)

§ 2. Mr. Hendry
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps she is taking to encourage the sale of British food abroad.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Michael Jack)
We have launched a number of initiatives. The latest is the continental challenge which is helping United Kingdom food suppliers to exploit the opportunities presented by the continental retail market.

§ Mr. Hendry
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that answer. Will he confirm that the food trade deficit has halved since the 1960s, and will he welcome the new food marketing course unveiled by my right hon. Friend the Minister at Sheffield Hallam university, which shows that the Government, the producers and the academic world are working together more closely than ever before to boost British food exports?

§ Mr. Jack
I thank my hon. Friend and can confirm the contribution that our approach to food marketing has made to help to reduce the current food deficit, which is still all too large, but at least progress has been made in the right direction. He is right to emphasise marketing, which is the key to ensuring that food producers produce what the marketplace wants, whether at home or abroad.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
Would not the Germans be much reassured about imported beef if there were a live test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy available in the United Kingdom? May we have an absolute assurance that the Government are supporting every project to research the issue of a live test?

§ Mr. Jack
I think that the German Government would do themselves a great favour if they considered the excellent scientific report on the safety of British beef which has already been agreed not only by scientists in the United Kingdom but by Community scientists. The German Government are waging a wholly spurious campaign. We consider every sensible proposal for additional research in this sphere, but, as I said, the German Government could do far worse than examine the evidence already before them.

§ Mr. Hicks
Does my hon. Friend recall that a few years ago the United Kingdom used to export pigmeat and pigmeat products? Is he aware that that is no longer the case, partly due to the decline of our domestic production as a consequence of the alleged illegal dumping of pigmeat and pigmeat products on our market by our European competitors?

§ Mr. Jack
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the issue. He will know that my right hon. Friend the Minister has raised in the Council of Ministers and with the Commissioner questions of, for example, illegal state aid in France. I refer my hon. Friend to a recent report produced by the Meat and Livestock Commission which examined the pig industry. He will find in it some interesting facts, especially in relation to the type of pig produced here and our processing industry which, if altered, would deal with some of the marketing problems to which my hon. Friend rightly referred.

§ Dr. Strang
But surely the Minister recognises that the German Government's decision to press for a ban on the import of British beef into Germany has aroused British concern about BSE? I accept that there is no evidence of a link between BSE in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in human beings, but is the Minister satisfied that the Medical Research Council has all the resources that it needs to do all the research that it can, taking into account the fact that the incubation period for CJD in human beings is very long? Will he welcome the German Government's decision to embark on their own research project to consider the possibility, however remote, of a link between BSE and CJD? In the meantime—[Interruption.] It is a very important issue—

§ Madam Speaker
Order. I am sure that it is a very important issue, but a supplementary question means one question, not a catalogue of statements or long explanations. There should be only one supplementary question, from wherever it comes.

§ Dr. Strang
I am grateful, Madam Speaker. Will the Minister reconsider the decision not to accept the Select Committee's recommendation to ban the use of calf brain and offal in the human food chain?

§ Mr. Jack
I am surprised at the line that the hon. Gentleman has taken on this serious matter, because the way in which he approaches it lends credence to some of the misleading reports that certain newspapers have published on BSE in this country. The reporting of half bits of information and half-truths without exploring the excellent science base that already exists does not diminish in any way the statements of safety that have been made about the consumption of home-produced beef.
As I said a moment ago, in my view, the German Government will look carefully at our own science which is excellently resourced, as is the science in the European Community. If they want to do their own scientific tests, they can do so. However, what they are proposing is illegal, it breaks the single market concept and it is fundamentally wrong.

§ Mr. Nicholas Winterton
Does my hon. Friend accept that reducing production costs is a way to encourage the export of food and food products from this country? Therefore, will the Ministry look favourably at a proposal from my constituents trading as Flightpath Farmers, who want to feed the modest excess of quota that they are producing on their dairy farms as dried milk to their stock, thus reducing their costs?

§ Mr. Jack
Flightpath Farmers are flying high with their ideas this afternoon. Of course, we welcome ideas to reduce the costs of the production of foodstuffs. Much of our research and development effort is directed at just that point. I think that my hon. Friend has raised the issue with my right hon. Friend the Minister, and I can assure him that it will be looked into very carefully.