Sugar

HC Deb 10 March 1994 vol 239 cc387-8W

Mr. Nicholas Brown

To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she will state(a) the price at which British wholesalers buy sugar per kilogramme, (b) the price at which the European Community sells sugar per kilogramme on the world market, (c) the levels of European Community production and consumption of sugar, (d) the level of common agricultural policy expenditure on sugar subsidies and (e) the cost to the British Exchequer of European Community intervention in the sugar market.

Mr. Jack

(a) Sugar manufacturers' list prices for bulk white sugar are currently around £0.66 per kilogramme, though the actual price paid is subject to negotiation between sugar producers and their customers.

(b) Currently, quota sugar is being sold on the world market, with the aid of export refunds, at around 0.30 ecu per kilogramme—£0.22 per kilogramme¹.

(c) The latest figures from the European Commission estimate total Community sugar production for 1992–93 at 15,602,179 tonnes, of which 13,336,888 tonnes is quota sugar. Consumption is estimated at 11,818,179 tonnes.

(d) The provisional outturn for Community expenditure for sugar in 1993 is 2,189 mecu—£1,720 million².

(e) The Exchequer cost of CAP support for sugar in the United Kingdom is estimated at £123,853 million for the 1993–94 financial year. The United Kingdom also contributes to the EC budget as a whole which funds the cost of sugar support in other member states. Around 55 per cent. of the costs of the regime are recovered from levies raised on growers and processors, which contribute to EC own resources. ¹ £1 = 1.3228 ecu—² £1 = 1.2729 ecu.