§ Mr. Kinseyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the intervention prices for oilseed rape which will apply in this country on the United Kingdom entry to the European Economic Community.
§ Mr. Anthony StodartThe arrangements for oilseeds from 1st February, 1973 were agreed by the Council of Ministers on 20th November. They take the form of two regulations, one setting out the principal intervention centres and prices for oilseed rape, and the second the compensatory amounts applicable in each of the new Member States.
In accordance with the principles laid down in the Treaty of Accession, the intervention prices were calculated by reference to the returns from wheat and rape seed and took into account current prices for oilseeds, both on the world and United Kingdom markets. The prices are based, as in the case of cereals, on £1=2.40 units of account.
There will be four intervention centres for rape seed in this country to start with. At Hull and Liverpool the intervention price will be £64.35 a long ton. At Southampton and Tilbury, which are closer to the main areas of production, it will be £61.05. Both these prices will be increased on 1st March by the Community scale of £0.82 a ton, and their increase will be maintained until the end of May.
The compensatory amount which will be deducted from Community prices in this sector, including the rape seed production subsidy, to adjust them to United Kingdom conditions during the transitional period has been fixed at £25.53. This will be progressively reduced until we reach the full Community price levels in the 1977–78 marketing year.
I am sure that producers, traders and users will welcome the fact that we now have agreement to the arrangements 37W which will apply initially in the transitional period. The prices agreed represent a sensible improvement on present returns to the United Kingdom grower which will encourage the home production of this crop. Moreover, this encouragement will, given the nature of the EEC arrangements for oil seeds, be achieved without any increase in the price paid by the processing industry for United Kingdom rape seed or by the consumer for its derived products.