§ Mr. Biffenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the estimated size of the present Common Market beef mountain; what additional cold meat storage is available for further surplus production; and what evidence he has of the final destination and price being paid for such beef that is sold from intervntion for extra-Community consumption.
§ Mr. BishopStatistics concerning intervention operations are kept by the EEC Commission and not by my Department. I understand that total stocks of beef in store in October were approximately 220,000 metric tons. I could not speculate about what further storage space is available. The selling prices for beef from intervention stores intended for export are set from time to time in published EEC regulations and vary according to the cuts and qualities of meat available for sales. The destination of such exports is a matter of commercial transaction by private traders and details are not available.