§ Lady Megan Lloyd Georgeasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will examine the system of milk distribution to see if it is possible to keep down the price of milk to the consumer.
§ Mr. PeartI am concerned to discover what are the possibilities of change in our system of milk distribution in England and Wales with a view to keeping down the cost of liquid milk to the consumer. I have therefore invited Mr. J. L. Davies, C.B.E., to undertake an enquiry and report to me. Mr. Davies retired recently from the post of General Manager of the Milk Marketing Board for England and Wales and has a very wide knowledge of the whole subject of milk.
I am glad to announce that Mr. Davies has accepted my invitation and hopes to give me his report in the course of this summer.
§ Lady Megan Lloyd Georgeasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why the retail price of milk is being raised by 4d. a gallon, in view of the fact that the price to the farmer has been raised by ld. a gallon.
§ Mr. PeartThe retail price of milk is being raised by ½d. a pint (4d. a gallon) for only eight months of the year, so that the average increase over the whole year is just over 2½d. a gallon. About 4¼d. of this is needed to meet the cost of the extra ld. a gallon on the farmers guaranteed price. This is because the farmers will get the extra ld. per gallon on the whole of the standard quantities, i.e. not only on milk used for liquid consumption but also on 450 million gallons used for manufacturing. The increase in the guaranteed price takes into account among other things the increases both in costs and efficiency, and should result in greater profitability.
The other half of the increase in the retail price will go to the distributors to cover increases in their costs due mainly to higher labour costs. It is intended to leave the profit margin on milk distribution unchanged at a little over 2½d. a gallon.