Milk Quotas and Butter Mountains (Hansard, 12 December 1988)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)
My Lords, thanks to the imposition of milk quotas and to the Community's stock disposal programme, intervention stocks of butter have been reduced from 1,323,000 tonnes in August 1986 to about 146,000 tonnes today.

§ Baroness Strange
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her most encouraging reply. Can she tell me whether there are any other mountains which are likely to diminish? Would she agree at this festive period that if there were a small brandy lake it could be combined with the small remaining butter mountain and the whole thing might then be spirited away?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, the comparisons that I shall give are based on the peak stocks in 1986 and are in percentage terms. UK stocks of butter are minus 86 per cent. and EC stocks minus 89 per cent.; skimmed milk powder, UK minus 100 per cent., EC minus 99 per cent.; beef, UK minus 68 per cent., EC minus 23 per cent.; cereals, UK minus 75 per cent., EC minus 45 per cent.

§ Lord Carter
My Lords, as a milk producer I should like to ask the Minister whether she will ensure that her ministerial colleague at the Department of Health does not betray her lack of knowledge of the milk industry as she recently betrayed her lack of knowledge of the egg industry.

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, in the context of that question, I am very busy trying not to get egg on my face.

§ Lord Gallacher
My Lords, can the noble Baroness tell the House how many weeks supply the present reduced stockholding of butter in the Community represents in relation to consumption?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I cannot. However, I believe that the figures speak for themselves. It is good news and it would be a great pity if anyone were to try to take away from that achievement.

§ Lord Gallacher
My Lords, I think that we all share the noble Baroness's pleasure at the news even 758 though the present position has been achieved at some cost to the consumer in terms of stock disposal. What I was trying to get from the noble Baroness was information as to the level of consumption of butter in relation to stockholding, because some of us are beginning to fear that there is a possibility of physical shortages of food in the Community. It was that aspect of the question in which I was interested.

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, supplies are naturally seasonal. I can assure the noble Lord that there will not be shortages of milk.

§ Lord Marley
My Lords, does my noble friend think that the reduction in the size or the Russian tank forces will have any effect on the butter mountain?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, I think that is another question.

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, will the noble Baroness agree that a number of farmers suffered in 1984 as a result of the quotas? Has she noted the judgment of the European Court, known as the Mulder judgment, which recommends that the Commission should reduce intervention prices to pay compensation to those farmers? Do Her Majesty's Government support that proposal in respect of intervention prices?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, with regard to the Mulder case, there is a legal requirement for the Community to act, and the Council is considering proposals from the Commission. We shall aim for a solution which is consistent with the court's judgment and which does not disadvantage existing quota holders and above all maintains the effectiveness of the quota system.

§ Lord John-Mackie
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that for a long time the butter mountain was built up at the expense of a lack of milk for cheese-making? Has that situation now changed?

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, with regard to cheese, virtually the same reply pertains as the one which I gave earlier in relation to seasonal fluctuations in the UK domestic liquid milk supply. The arrangements for cheese adopted this year by the industry to minimise the effect of quotas seem to have worked well. In the longer term 1 welcome the MMB's new seasonality payment scheme and I hope that producers will respond positively.