§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much wheat has been denatured since 1st August 1973; what was the average price paid for wheat for denaturing; and what premium will be paid for denaturing.
§ Mr. Anthony StodartIt is not possible to say how much wheat has been denatured until the subsidy claims are received by the Intervention Board, and this may be several months after the event. So far, claims have been paid in respect of nearly 200,000 tons of wheat denatured since 1st August, but the total amount denatured since then may well be of the order of 400,000 tons. The average price paid for wheat for denaturing is not known; the wheat belongs to the person or firm claiming the subsidy. The rates of premium are as follows
132WFrom 1st August to 31st October—£5.065 per ton.From 1st November—£3.29 per ton, rising by monthly instalments of about 10p per ton to a maximum of £3.91 per ton payable in May, June and July 1974.proportion of personal disposable income was spent on food, excluding meals out, in each of the years since 1964 to the latest available date, in each of the nine EEC countries.
§ Mrs. FennerThe available information is given in the following table. Because of differences of definition, precise comparisons between countries cannot be made. For West Germany, Luxembourg and Denmark it is also not possible to distinguish consumers' expenditure on food alone.