Pig Industry

HC Deb 01 July 1999 vol 334 cc420-3

8. Mr. John Healey (Wentworth)

What recent representations he has received on the current state of the pig industry. [87922]

The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Nick Brown)

Over recent months I have received a number of letters, from hon. Members and others, about the difficulties currently faced by the pig industry. In addition, I have listened to the views of pig farmers, their representatives and other interested parties at seminars and regional events.

Mr. Healey

May I draw my right hon. Friend's attention to difficulties faced by Mr. and Mrs. Brookes at West Melton? They are pig farmers in my constituency and last year, for the first time in four generations of farming, they took out a bank overdraft. What reassurances can he give to Mr. and Mrs. Brookes and thousands of pig farmers like them that the Government are doing all that they can to ensure that the exemplary standards of pig husbandry, feed and drugs treatment in this country are an advantage, not a disadvantage, in the marketplace?

Mr. Brown

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am very sympathetic to farmers who find themselves in such circumstances. I am meeting the representatives of the agricultural divisions of the main high street banks specifically to discuss the problems of the pig industry. Furthermore, the Government's strategy, which is aimed at getting the industry through what I freely acknowledge are difficult times, is aimed at securing for pig producers such as his constituents a premium in the marketplace for the animal welfare measures that Parliament voted to be put in place. I have been working, with some success, not only with the British Retail Consortium, but with the Meat and Livestock Commission and others with an interest in this matter to secure that premium for the industry in the marketplace. The figures to date show that there is a 15 per cent. premium for United Kingdom pigmeat in the United Kingdom market.

Mr. Christopher Gill (Ludlow)

Does the Minister accept that the Government are presiding over the biggest crisis in the pig industry that the country has known? He will be aware that the breeding herd is 23 per cent. down in only 18 months and threatens to go lower. The Government have had the opportunity to help the industry, but they have failed. For example, they recently decided not to allow the separate rendering of porcine offals for feed.

Is the Minister aware that I have asked questions about help from other Ministries? He should be, because I have raised that issue with him previously. On 20 May I wrote to Ministers at the Department of Health and at DETR and asked them to use their best offices to ensure that Local Authorities"— and health authorities— purchase only pork and pork products derived from pigs produced to the same high health and welfare standards as are applied in the UK. I have had no reply, other than an acknowledgement saying that the letter would be passed on to the Minister of Agriculture. Is that joined-up government?

Mr. Brown

I assure the hon. Gentleman that it is joined-up government. I have made the representations that I previously promised to my colleagues within the Government and we have had a supportive response, not least from the Ministry of Defence, which makes sure that its procurement of fresh pork products is 100 per cent. United Kingdom sourced. That is an important support for the industry. In addition, I have on my desk draft letters waiting to go out to the major public authorities—the prisons, the health authorities and local authorities—not via other Departments but directly, urging them to source products of the highest welfare and animal hygiene standards, thus supporting the Meat and Livestock Commission's quality assured campaign.

I believe that the strategy that we are pursuing is the right one. Of course, the size of the national herd has come down; it is right that it should do so. The only way through for the industry is to bring supply and demand closer into alignment. The hon. Gentleman says that the Government have presided over the crisis, but over-optimistic decisions that were made in 1995–96 about the amount of product that the market could bear have, more than anything else, served to get us into the present difficulties. Those decisions were made not just in the United Kingdom but across the European Union. External factors, such as over-optimistic assumptions about a rising market in the far east and the former Soviet Union, turned out not to be well founded. Those were market judgments, which are not the fault of the Government.

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst)

Order. May I appeal for briefer questions and briefer answers?

Mr. Hilton Dawson (Lancaster and Wyre)

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, following a debate in the House last Thursday in which I referred to excellent pork sausages from Garstang, our worthy Hansard reporters asked where they could get them? May I tell them that a consignment is heading this way a week on Monday? Would my right hon. Friend like some as well?

On a more serious point, may I urge my right hon. Friend to use his considerable weight and presence with the British Retail Consortium and with supermarkets everywhere to ensure that excellent products such as Mary Miller's pork sausages get into our supermarkets instead of lower quality pig products from abroad?

Mr. Brown

I hope to meet the British Retail Consortium shortly to reaffirm the arrangements that I made with it before Christmas. I shall add to my weight, and perhaps my responsibilities, by consuming the product that my hon. Friend recommends.

Mr. William Thompson (West Tyrone)

Is the Minister aware that in Northern Ireland the problem is particularly acute, because the selling price received by the farmer is a lower percentage than that in the rest of the United Kingdom? There are still many rumours that other European Governments are subsidising their pig farmers through the back door. What investigations has MAFF made into those allegations, and what representations have been made to the Commission about them?

Mr. Brown

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that there are particular difficulties with the market in Northern Ireland. Prices there are not as buoyant as they are in the rest of the United Kingdom. Perhaps it is a mistake to use the word "buoyant", because although we have obtained for the industry a premium in the marketplace, the industry is still not back to break-even point. I accept that we have more work to do. I have made representations to the Commission relating to the suggestion that the French Government plan to introduce state aids that go beyond EU rules, and the Commission is investigating that. Moreover, I recently met our agricultural attachés in the different EU embassies and went through a number of detailed questions with them on points that the Government hope that they will look out for.

Mr. Tim Yeo (South Suffolk)

Given the collapse of the incomes of pig farmers since Labour came to power, how long will the Minister stand idle while imports of pig meat produced under conditions not permitted in Britain continue to flood into this country? How long will the French Government be allowed to pay unlawful state aids to their pig farmers before a murmur of protest passes the Minister's lips? How many British pig farmers will go bust before the Minister translates his warm words of sympathy into effective action to help the remaining British pig farmers to survive?

Mr. Brown

I do not want to go through again the answer I gave earlier. The hon. Gentleman will have heard the explanation, but does not seem able to understand it. As I told the House, when other member states are trying to introduce state aids that we believe are outwith European Union rules, we complain to the Commission and ask it to investigate. We have raised with the Commission the matter of the alleged state aids in France—I notice that the hon. Gentleman has no hard evidence—and the Commission is requiring information from the French Government.

On the hon. Gentleman's other points, I should say to the whole House that there is no solution to this problem in protectionist measures. We must fight for our industry to get a premium in the marketplace, and that is exactly what the Government are doing. The hon. Gentleman would serve the pig industry better if he joined forces with me and fought to secure for the industry the premium in the marketplace which the production systems in this country rightly merit.