§ Sir Peter Millsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will announce the guaranteed price for wool for 1983–84.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerThe guaranteed price for wool will remain at its present level of 115p per kg for the marketing year beginning on 1 May 1983. In reaching this decision the Government have taken full account of the increasing costs facing wool producers, but have had to balance these against the stabilisation principle underlying the wool guarantee arrangements. Over the past year United Kingdom market prices have been weaker than expected because of currency movements and of the depressed market for wool throughout the world. As a result, the stabilisation fund administered by the British Wool Marketing Board has moved more deeply into deficit, requiring further Exchequer advances to the fund. These circumstances have led the Government to decide that they could not justify an increase in the level of the guaranteed price.