§ Mr. Martenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his best current estimate of the price per ton which the United Kingdom will pay for butter by the spring of 1978 (a) without any adjustment of the green pound and (b) if the green pound is at parity; and if he will translate these into pence per pound retail showing the average price per pound in each year since 1971.
§ Mr. BishopI regret that, because of the number of different factors influencing the future level of market prices, we are not prepared to speculate at this stage on the level which might prevail in 1978. However, the current accession compensatory amount at the present representative rate is £268.74 per tonne. At78W the present market rate for the pound the accession compensatory amount and monetary compensatory amount together would total £753.98 per tonne, being £376.12 and £377.86 per tonne respectively.
Average retail prices since 1971 are as follows: (pence per lb) 1971 23.78 1972 25.75 1973 21.20 1974 22.14 1975 28.21 1976 (Jan-Mar) 33.07 1976 (Apr-June) 36.84 1976 (Jul-Sep) 42.61 Source: National Food Survey Reports.