Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the average London daily price for raw sugar in 1982 and in 1983 to date; what were the corresponding United Kingdom support prices; what was the United Kingdom production of sugar beet and raw sugar in 1982 and what is the forecast for 1983; what was the European Community surplus in 1982 and what is the forecast for 1983; and what was the effective gross return to the farmer per tonne of beet including pulp payments and so on.
Mr. MacGregorThe information requested is as follows:
(a) Average London daily price for raw sugar £/tonne 1982 119.38 1983 (January-May 114.92
(b) United Kingdom intervention price for raw sugar £/tonne 1982 (January-June) 238.68 (July-December) 263.73 1983 (January-June) 263.73 (July-) 274.31 (c) United Kingdom production of sugar beet in 1982
10 million tonnes(d) United Kingdom production of raw sugar in 1982
Sugar from beet is normally produced directly as white sugar. For technical reasons a small amount of raw was produced in 1982. This is expected to be refined to white before sale. Total sugar produced in 1982 was 1.4 million tonnes white sugar equivalent (wse).(e) Forecast United Kingdom production in 1983
Weather conditions during the growing and harvesting period have a major effect on sugar production. It is therefore too early to give an accurate forecast of 1983 production. It is not however expected to exceed one million tonnes wse. No raw sugar is expected to be produced.(f) The Community's surplus
Production of beet and cane sugar in the Community in 1982 exceeded estimated consumption by 4.3 million tonnes wse. It is too early to give an accurate estimate for 1983 but the current forecast is that the corresponding figure may be in the region of one million tonnes wse.These figures take no account of the Community's imports of sugar, or of stocks carried forward from previous years.(g) The return to the farmer
For the 1982 crop, the gross return to United Kingdom farmers, including transport allowance and all other payments, was £27.05 per tonne of beet.Note: In accordance with the conventions followed in the annual review, crop year figures have been converted to calendar years by attributing production at the beginning of the year to the previous year.