§ Mr. Welshasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give figures for the Scottish raspberry industry, showing yield per acre, cost per acre and price per ton for their produce in each year over the past five years; and what steps he has taken to protect the income of raspberry growers this year.
§ Mr. William RossInformation on the estimated average yield per acre and price per ton is given below for each of the past five years. My Department does not produce estimates of average production costs which depend on a number of variable factors.
Assistance by way of capital grant and also technical and other advice from the 603W agricultural colleges continue to be available to raspberry growers. Under recent EEC arrangements aimed at the liberalisation of trade with third countries, a system of monitoring of imports of raspberries and certain other processed products was introduced, so that appropriate measures can be taken if the Community market is or is likely to be exposed to serious disturbance. Given this measure
SCOTTISH RASPBERRY PRODUCTION 1971 1972 1973 1974 (Provisional) 1975 (Forecast) Estimated average yield (tons per acre) … … l.36 1.43 1.42 2.13 1.68 Estimated average price* (£ per ton) … … £143 £155 £234 £277 £208 * Weighted average of various outlets.