§ 40. Sir J. Gilmourasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what quantities of canned and frozen potatoes, or potatoes in any other containers which have been pre-cooked, have been imported into this country since 1st January.
§ Mr. HoyImports during the first four months of 1968 were:
Canned potatoes … 3,989 tons Frozen potato products … 6,079 tons Dehydrated potato … 6,469 tons Figures for May should be available on 28th June.
§ 47. Mr. Bruce-Gardyneasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the total value of all imported potatoes and potato products to the latest available date in 1968, and the figure for the corresponding period of 1967.
§ Mr. HoyUp to the end of April this year the value of imports of new potatoes was £5.0 million compared with £3.7 million last year. The corresponding figures for dehydrated potato were £1.3 million and £0.2 million respectively. Imports of canned and frozen potatoes for the same period this year were £1.1 million but no figures are available for 1967.
§ Mr. Nottasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his estimate of the tonnage of potatoes which was imported into the United Kingdom in the two weeks up to 15th June, 1968; and what is the approximate breakdown of their countries of origin.
§ Mr. HoyOfficial statistics of potato imports in June will not be available until the end of July. My estimate is that something of the order of 50,000 tons were imported during the first two weeks of June, almost entirely from Cyprus.