§ 49. Sir Clive Bossomasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total tonnage of beef and of mutton that has been landed in the United Kingdom from South American countries since November, 1967; how much is now in cold store; and how much has already been released for sale.
§ Mr. Peart:Arrivals from South America recorded since November total 4,628 tons of carcase meat, of which 3,967 tons was beef and 661 tons was mutton and lamb. The beef included 1,150 tons in chilled form which was released in December for immediate consumption in the London area. The remainder, which includes frozen beef, mutton and lamb has since 4th December been subject to the undertaking by the trade, and since 26th January to the Order, not to release frozen meat from store except under licence.
§ 50. Sir Clive Bossomasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in view of the fact that there is no practicable way of determining with certainty whether the foot-and-mouth virus is present in consignments of meat from South America, what he proposes to do with the frozen meat now in cold store from South America.
§ Mr. Peart:I am considering this question.
§ 51. Mr. Oakesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations have been made to him to lift the voluntary ban on the importation of meat from South America; and what replies he has sent.
§ Mr. Peart:I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given yesterday to the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West (Mr. Stodart).—[Vol. 759, c. 1391–2.]
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he 407W has yet received direct evidence, scientifically obtained, that the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was in any way linked with the importation of meat from South America.
§ Mr. Peart:I would refer my hon. Friend to the answer given yesterday to the hon. Member for Oswestry (Mr. Biffen) and others.—[Vol. 759, c. 1379–81.]
§ Mr. Oakesasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is aware of the sharp rise in the price of meat, particularly beef, since 4th December 1967; and to what extent this increase is attributable to the ban on the importation of meat from South America.
§ Mr. Peart:A number of factors have been responsible for the rise in meat prices which has, in fact, taken place over the last four months, and, as my hon. Friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary said to my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Gardner) and the hon. Member for Sudbury and Woodbridge (Mr. Stair ton) on 24th January, I cannot isolate the effect of any single factor. Import restrictions applied from 4th December, but the greatest part of the rise in wholesale beef prices took place during November, when the volume of imports was down because of earlier low prices, and when the transport and marketing of our own fatstock became more difficult.—[Vol. 757, c. 389–390.]