§ Mr. Marlowasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will compare the European Economic Community price of sugar with that on the world market; and if he will make a statement including the cost to (a)the consumer and (b) the taxpayer of the current EEC sugar regime.
§ Mr. MacGregor[pursuant to his reply, 11 July 1985]: The European Community's effective support price for white sugar is currently 58.43 ecu/100 kg (£361.48/tonne). The London daily price for white sugar, which may be regarded as representative of the world price, was $US 130 (£96.65) per tonne on 9 July 1985. The world sugar market is a residual and higly volatile one. Estimates of the cost of the current Community sugar regime to consumers could be attempted only by making hypothetical 571W assumptions about the policy which would be pursued in its absence. The cost to the Community budget of the sugar regime in 1984 is provisionally estimated as 406.2 million ecu (about 235 million), net of levies paid by Community sugar producers towards the costs of storage and surplus disposal.