§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the current surplus 496W of sugar in metric tonnes; what is his Department's estimate of the market value of this sugar in EEC stockpiles; and how much was exported to the USSR in 1980.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerIn 1979–80, the latest complete year for which figures are available, European Community production of sugar plus preferential imports of sugar under the Lo***e Convention and related agreements exceeded Community consumption by some 4.1 million tonnes. None of this sugar was held as intervention stocks. Information on European Community exports of sugar to Russia for the whole of 1980 is not available but the latest figures published by the International Sugar Organisation show that between January and August 1980, the USSR imported 662,823 tonnes—raw value—of sugar from European Community countries.