§ 96. Mr. Footasked the Minister of Food whether the new. system of monthly allocations of wheat under the Combined Food Board gives effective power to the members of the Board to allocate wheat supplies between different importing countries, or leaves importing countries and U.N.R.R.A. free to compete for the purchase of supplies.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe only practical change in the present procedure of the Combined Food Board as regards the programme of shipments of wheat and flour from the four main exporting countries (Canada, the United States, Australia and Argentina) compared with the previous practice is that the programmes are now arrived at on a month to month basis instead of a six monthly period. This change was made owing to the difficulty of forecasting in advance the quantities of wheat and flour which can be made available by each exporting country over a long period. There has been no change in the procedure whereby the Cereals Committee of the Combined Food Board, on which the four main exporting countries are represented, considers the requirements of the various importing countries and recommends to the Combined Food Board how these requirements shall be met out of the total quantity which the four main exporting countries expect to have available for export. The exporting countries have regard to these recommendations in selling their wheat to the importing countries.