§ Mr. Biffenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the latest assessment that has been made of the recent and prospective levels of imports of French eggs, the likely and desired volume of culling of French hens to bring about equilibrium in EEC supply and demand for eggs; and what has been the overall impact of French egg imports on the profitability of the United Kingdom poultry industry.
§ Mr. StrangImports from France during the first six months of this year are estimated to have amounted to 500,000 boxes or about 3 per cent. of our total 415W supplies; I have no information on prospective imports.
A scheme is under way to encourage the slaughter of up to 2 million French hens. This should reduce supply in the short term. But there are many other factors which affect both supply and demand for eggs in the Community.
It is not possible to calculate what prices would have obtained in our market had there been no imports or, therefore, to measure the impact of imports on the profitability of production here.