§ 64. Mr. Hurdasked the Minister of Food what tonnage of sugar can be produced by the existing sugar beet factories; what proportion of the country's total requirements this represents; and how the cost of home-produced sugar compares with the cost of imported sugar.
§ Major Lloyd GeorgeThe factories are designed to deal with a crop of 4½ million tons of beet, yielding on average 550,000 tons of sugar, or about a quarter of our current consumption. In exceptional years the output of sugar has been as high as 700,000 tons. Exact comparison with the cost of imported supplies is difficult, but it is estimated that this year the cost of home-grown sugar will be almost the same as the cost of Commonwealth sugar and about £5 a ton more than foreign sugar.