§ Mr. Watkinsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he proposes to extend any further assistance to pig farmers at the present time.
§ Mr. Fryasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what steps he is taking to ensure the profitability of the British pigmeat industry in 1977;
(2) what steps he intends to take to ensure that a viable British pigmeat industry will continue.
§ Mr. BishopWe are aware of the difficulties many pig producers are facing and believe that the best way to help them would be to secure a reduction in the monetary compensatory amounts applied to imports of pigmeat products by introducing a change in the way they838W are calculated. I believe this to be also the view of the industry. We have secured a small change in the method of calculation of pigmeat monetary compensatory amounts which led to an 8 per cent. reduction from 8th November. But this is not enough, and we are continuing to press for a more fundamental change in the way these amounts are calculated.
§ Mr. Watkinsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the import subsidy presently being received by Danish pig producers to import into the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. BishopThe current levels of accession and monetary compensatory amounts together payable on pigmeat and pig products from Denmark are as follows: pig carcases £249/ton; bacon sides £334/ton; canned ham £654/ton.
§ Mr. Watkinsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by how much on average feed costs have gone up for the pig producers in the United Kingdom during the last 12 months; and by how much returns have increased in the same period.
§ Mr. BishopIt is estimated that average costs of pigfeed compounds in Great Britain have increased by about 35 per cent. since November 1975. Average pig prices in the United Kingdom are currently about the same as a year ago.