§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much alcohol was distilled from wine, sugar-beet and other surplus agricultural products in the European Economic Community in 1973 and each of the past five years with the aid of subsidy; how this compares with the production of industrial alcohol; and what was the cost of the subsidies to the European Economic Community budget.
§ Mrs. FennerThe quantities of alcohol distilled from wine and from surplus fruit under Community financed agricultural support arrangements and the costs involved were as follows. No alcohol was produced from sugar beet at the Community's expense.
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Total alcohol distilled from wine with the aid of an EC subsidy Millions of hectolitres 1973–74* 1.1 1979–80 2.7 1980–81 3.2 1981–82 2.1 1982–83 3.2 1983–84†‡ 3.4 * Figures for 1972–73 not available. † Provisional. ‡ Until 1984 the Commodity year ran from December to December; it now runs from 1 September to 31 August.
Cost to the EC of subsidising wine distillation (mecu) 1973 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 Wine 2.0 194.5 314.9 390.5 391.4 *869 By-products — 0.1 — 9.0 63.1 †72 ‡2.0 194.6 314.9 399.5 454.5 941 * Includes 179 mecu incurred in 1983 but paid in 1984. †Estimate. ‡Convened from old budgetary units of account (ua) into ecu using average conversion rate; figure is therefore approximate. Source: EEC Commission financial reports.
Quantity of withdrawn fruit* distilled into alcohol ('000 tonnes) Cost of compensation† (mecu) 1973–74 413 ‡21 1978–79 456 13.7 1979–80 445 22.5 1980–81 504 24.5 1981–82 252 19.4 1982–83 863 87.6 * Apples, pears and peaches. † Paid to growers for withdrawals less receipts from sale of alcohol. ‡ 1973–74: Cost of compensation only—no figure for receipts from sale(s) available. Source: Commission.
Note: 1 tonne of apples produces about 40 litres of alcohol. There are no figures for peaches and pears.
Production of synthetic alcohol in the same years was as follows.
Production of industrial (synthetic) alcohol in the community Thousand hectolitres of pure alcohol 1973* 4,469 1978 5,367 1979 5,740 1980† 4,553 1981 4,342 1982‡ 4,712 * Estimate. † 1973–80: Community of nine. ‡ 1981–82: Community of ten. Sources: 1973: Commission estimate—Report to the Council of 28 September 1978.
1978–82: Commission documents.
1973 statistics were provided for the Select Committee on the European Communities, Session 1979–80, 21 report "Ethyl Alcohol".
1978–82 statistics were provided for the Select Committee on the European Communities, Session 1983–84, 16th report, "Ethyl Alcohol".