HC Deb 09 March 1976 vol 907 cc171-3W
Mr. Spearing

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for each of the sugar years 1967–68 to 1974–75, what are the amounts disbursed by FEOGA, or other EEC bodies in respect of financial support for the A and B sugar beet quotas, respectively, together with other EEC funds expended on sugar support including export subsidies.

Mr. Bishop

Community financial support for sugar is confined to quota A and B sugar. However separate figures of FEOGA expenditure in respect of each quota are not available. The following represent total FEOGA expenditure on sugar for the period in question:

£ million*
1967/68† 28.2
1968/69† 102.4
I969‡ 38.9
1970§ 80.3
1971§ 46.0
1972§ 67.1
1973§ 53.0
1974§ 45.3
Most of this expenditure is covered by contributions paid in by beet growers and processors
* Converted from units of account at the rate of £1=2.4 ua
† 1 July-30 June years
‡ 1 July 1969–31 December 1969
§ 1 January-31 December years

Mr. Spearing

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he received the written submissions of the trade union representing the workers in the port sugar refineries on the future pattern of sugar refining; what written reply, other than acknowledgment, he has made; and what part of its contents or proposals he cannot accept.

Mr. Bishop

The trade unions' paper was received on 10th December 1975. No written reply has been sent. Discusssions with the trade unions concerned are likely to continue for some time.

Mr. Spearing

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what consultations he has had, and what undertakings he has received, from the British Sugar Corporation and the National Farmers Union, respectively, concerning the expansion of beet sugar growing and refining; what is his assessment of the reliability and variation in this source of sugar from year to year.

Mr. Bishop

My Department had full consultations with the National Farmers Union and the British Sugar Corporation before the issue in April 1975 of the Government's White Paper "Food from our own Resources" in which an expansion of domestic beet sugar production was projected. The NFU welcomed the aims of the White Paper. The NFU is also consulted each year in the Annual Review of agriculture. In June 1975 the British Sugar Corporation announced its own plan for factory modernisation and expansion which would enable it to cope with the increased production of sugar envisaged in the White Paper. As regards the reliability of sugar beet I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him yesterday on yields per acre over the past ten years which show that over most of those years yield varied very little.—[Vol. 907, c. 19–20.]

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