§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government if, in view of the arrangements made for the importation of Russian and other barley, they are prepared to take steps to ensure that the price to be paid by purchasers of home-grown barley of this year's harvest will not be lower than the minimum for imported barley of similar feeding quality.]
1089THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD (EARL WALDEGRAVE)My Lords, the action which the Government has recently taken on dumped or subsidised imports has already brought about a significant improvement in the market for home-grown barley. There is every reason to hope that the price of homegrown barley delivered to port mills will keep broadly in line with that of imported barley of similar quality, provided growers do not overload the market with supplies. This season, growers have an incentive to spread their sales more evenly throughout the year under the statutory arrangements which your Lordships approved on 26th June last.
§ LORD WISEMy Lords, while thanking the noble Earl for ibis reply, I am afraid that I must disagree with the suggestion that the price of barley has risen to any considerable extent. Is the noble Earl not aware that the price of feeding barley 'at the present moment is at least £2 a ton less than the price of imported barley of the same quality? If that is so, is it not a case of,exercising some sort of control over the prices of English barley so that the farmers should not suffer and the taxpayer should not suffer by having to pay high subsidies by reason of the low price of barley at the present time?
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords I am not sure that I mule agree with the noble Lord about the price. My information is that at Mark Line on Monday, July 24, homegrown feed barley was being gold for £19 to £19 15s. per ton delivered to port This price is at least 30s. per ton higher than it was a month ago and 50s. more than seven weeks ago. When we are considering the prices of imported barley we must remember that they are generally quoted as at port c.i.f., and there is a 10 per cent. duty on top of that price. If, for instance. barley is quoted at £18 per ton c.i.f. at port, after a 10 per cent. duty £1 16s. has to be added to that.
§ LORD STONHAMM Lords, can the noble Earl say whether, if prices of home-grown barley fall appreciably below the price of the Russian imports, the Government will take steps?—because it is unanswerable 1090 that if British barley prices fall too low, the taxpayer's subsidy will go up and the Chancellor will then say that the cost of farm support is too high.
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords, any Government control over the market price for home-grown barley would require a major change in the Government's tree market policy and the system of agricultural support by deficiency payments which is associated with that policy.
VISCOUNT ALEXANDER or HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, would not the noble Earl, from his knowledge of the matter and knowing 'the difficulty that farmers have had this last sowing season, when they have poured more barley in than they would have done if they had had a suitable winter growing season, agree 'that there ought 'to be some measure for keeping out foreign barley until what you have at home—and this will help your balance of payments—is properly absorbed in the British market?
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords, 1 think we have really gone a long way in this. I would remind the noble Viscount of what my right honourable friend the President of the Board of Trade has done. He announced in another place on July 7 that he had been discussing this question of imports of barley with the suppliers, the exporting countries, and as a result of their assurances he was not going to impose at the present moment anti-dumping duties, but he had assurances that no new contracts would be made at a landed price of less than £20 a ton. That surely meets the position.
VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLS-BOROUGHMy Lords, I should have thought: that, if you were really watching your balance of payments and recognised what a powerful factor British agricultural products now are in the;balance of payments, if you had more available here, you could keep a lot of the other out.
§ LORD WISEMy Lords, may I point out to the noble Earl, in view of what he said about the present price of barley, that he was quoting Mincing Lane prices. But the farmer gets the price on the country market, which is sometimes very much less than the Mincing Lane price; and it is at present.
EARL WALDEGRAVEMy Lords, as the noble Lord will know, the Working Party on Feeding Barley on which the merchants, compounders and growers are represented, issue each Friday an indicated ex-farm value for home-grown feeding barley of fair average quality and 16 per cent. moisture content, and the present ex-farm price is 18s. 3d. per cwt. or £18 5s. 0d. per ton. If you compare that with your port price you will find that, allowing for delivery costs, it comes to very much the same thing, £19 or more per ton.