§ Mr. Spearingasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what were the quantities and qualities of wheat bought into intervention in the United Kingdom and the rest of the EEC, respectively, in 1977; what were their respective purchase prices; what arrangements were made by the United Kingdom Intervention Board in order to store any quantities purchased; how much was disposed of; at what prices; and how much of that year's crop now remains in store.
§ Mr. BishopNo wheat has been sold into intervention in the United Kingdom.
Any wheat sold into intervention in the United Kingdom would either be placed in approved commercial stores, or in Government-owned stores.
In the rest of the EEC 268,240 tonnes of wheat were bought into intervention during 1977. The wheat bought after 1st August-189,768 tonnes—was of breadmaking quality, as defined by the machinability test, but there are no figures to show the proportion of breadmaking and feed qualities in the wheat bought before 31st July—78,472 tonnes. There are no data available whereby an average purchase price or disposal price per tonne of wheat bought or sold into intervention can be calculated. The wheat would have been bought at the intervention price before 31st July and after that date at the reference price valid for
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Quantities of major agricultural product in Intervention in the EEC at the latest available date (1) Quantities in Intervention valued at 1977–78 common Intervention Price (6) Quantities forecast to be disposed with a subsidy on EEC or world markets in 1978 (3) (4) (5) Cost of Disposal (7) '000 tonnes £m '000 tonnes £m Beef … … … 350.0 (31st March) 520 150 60 Skimmed Milk Powder 780.3 (11th May) 424 2,000 660 Liquid Skimmed Milk — — 7,000 235 Butter … … 183.0 (11th May) 244 511 400 Cereals(excluding rice) … … 1,170.5 (9th May) 84 11,839 675 Sugar … … … — — 2,590 395 Olive Oil … … 92.6 (31st March) 73 — — Wine(Private Storage) … … … 6,618,000 h.1. (31st March) (2) — — (1) A proportion of these stocks will be seasonal rather than structural surpluses. (2) There is no intervention price as such for wine. The wine held in private stores will vary widely in quality and strength and it is not possible to value it. (3) Forecasts underlying 1978 EEC Budget Appropriations. (4) These quantities do not represent surpluses in as much as some proportion of them could have been sold without the aid of subsidy. (5) Excludes food aid shipments. (6) The unit of account values of intervention stocks have been converted to sterling at the 1977–78 representative rate for the pound of £1 = 1.70463 ua. (7) Disposal costs have been converted at the current budgetary rate of £1 = 1.53 ua. the month of delivery and adjusted for variations from the quality standards set for intervention. Disposals of wheat from intervention on to the Community market must be at the appropriate monthly intervention price plus 1.5 ua/tonne or the market price, which ever is higher.
It is not possible to identify wheat from a particular crop year in the figures for disposals which for 1977 were as follows:
Tonnes Stocks at 1st January 1,376,519 Purchases 268,240 1,644,759 Disposals 1,122,972 Stocks at 31st December 521,787