§ Mr. Martenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when Great Britain last applied to buy 1,000 tons of butter or over from the European Economic Community; with what result; and what was the estimated stock of European Economic Community butter at that time.
§ Mr. Anthony StodartOn 19th January, because of the failure of some countries to supply butter to our market at the level of their present quotas, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced that he had authorised the import by 31st March of an additional 12,000 tons of butter. Allocations to countries of the European Economic Community were:
Tons Netherlands … 5,000 Belgium … 1,500 France … 1,000 Federal Republic of Germany … 700 The quantities allocated to the Netherlands, Belgium and France were the maximum quantities expected to be available. I expect that all this butter will be supplied. The stock of butter in the European Economic Community on 1st January was estimated to have fallen to 131,448 metric tons.