HC Deb 24 January 1973 vol 849 cc179-80W
Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT detailed statistics of the consumption and retail prices of liquid milk, butter and cheese and the minutes worked to earn a litre of milk and kilogramme of butter and cheese in each of the nine countries of the EEC for 1970; and to what extent he is able to publish the figures for 1971.

Mr. Anthony Stodart

The International Dairy Federation has recently published figures for 1970. These are included in the January 1973 issue of theDairy Mirror and I am arranging for a copy to be placed in the Library.

Statistics of per capita consumption and retail prices for 1971 for certain countries are set out below; information relating to 1971 on minutes worked to earn a litre of milk and a kilogramme of butter and cheese is not available.

Because of the wide variation in the quality and form in which the products are sold in different countries, the prices given below are not strictly comparable.

CONSUMPTION AND RETAIL PRICES OF LIQUID MILK, BUTTER AND CHEESE 1971
Retail price p per litre Consumption per head litres
LIQUID MILK
United Kingdom 9.2 138.0
Denmark 7.8 103.5
Belgium 7.8 74.1
Netherlands 7.9
Irish Republic 7.3
France 8.0
Federal Republic of Germany 9.2 70.1
Italy 9.9 66.4

p per kilogramme kilogrammes
BUTTER
United Kingdom 52.9† 8.1
Denmark 74.6 8.8
Belgium 91.4 8.5*
Netherlands 87.4 2.4
Irish Republic 55.1 12.1
France 94.9 9.0
Federal Republic of Germany 89.3 7.9
Italy 115.3 (2.0)
CHEESE
United Kingdom 51.3 5.6
Denmark 67.7 9.9
Belgium 68.2 8.4*
Netherlands 74.9 9.9‡
Irish Republic 44.9 (1.7)
France 96.5 (14.1)
Federal Republic of Germany 104.6 10.5
Italy (10.5)
* Includes Luxembourg.
† New Zealand butter.
‡ Includes curd.

Figures in brackets are provisional.