Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will take steps in order to ensure that cereal surpluses to the United Kingdom are used to reduce the price of cereals to British intensive livestock producers and not exported by means of substantial subsidies at the expense of the European Community.
Mr. MacGregorThe Government have pressed the Commission in recent weeks to take steps so that intervention wheat could be made available on more favourable terms to British livestock producers, but could not obtain a decision in time for such measures to help with prices this season.
The United Kingdom is participating in discussions on a Commission proposal for a scheme whereby some 220W intervention wheat might be made available next season for use as animal feed within the Community, instead of being exported. In its present form, the proposed scheme appears likely to be of less assistance to the livestock sector than we would have hoped.
Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether it is his Department's policy that intervention cereals should be allowed to compete with cereals on the open market in order to allow market forces to produce more realistic cereal prices for intensive livestock producers.
Mr. MacGregorBoth bread wheat and barley have been offered for sale from intervention stores in the United Kingdom since March at the lowest prices allowable under Community rules. These have reached a level where they are competitive to the extent that 198,049 tonnes of wheat and 101,903 tonnes of barley have been sold so far.