§ Miss Maynardasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the costs of production of livestock farmers in the United Kingdom compared with those in other EEC countries; and, in particular, what are the comparative costs of land purchased or rented, labour, weekly wages or earnings, oil and petrol, machinery, feeding stuffs, fertilisers, value added tax, and rates, respectively.
§ Mr. John SilkinInformation about production costs in terms of expenditure
734Wtural unit of account (AUA) in US dollars during the week 18th-24th January 1978, the reference period on which monetary compensatory amounts on 30th January were based, were 1 EUA,=1.22291 US dollars and 1 AUA=1.47330 US dollars respectively.
The EUA was initiated by a Council decision of 21st April 1975. The following table gives the average value in United States dollars of the two units in January of each of the years quoted.
per hectare is published by the EEC Commission in "Farm Accountancy Data Network for the EEC—Results 1975 COM /77/548 final" for samples of livestock farms. Information about average prices of feeding stuffs, fertilisers and fuel oil, and about market values and rents of agricultural land is published by the Commission in its Annual Reports: "The Agricultural Situation in the Community". Information about labour costs per hour of permanent agricultural workers is published by the ECE/FAO in "Prices of Agricultural Products and Selected Inputs in Europe and North America 1975/76 (ECE/AGRI/30)". Information about the earnings of agricultural workers in 1975 is published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC) in" Eurostat—Earnings in Agriculture, 1975". Information on rates of value added tax is published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC) in "Eurostat—Selling Prices of Animal Products". These publications are in the Library of the House or are being obtained by the Library.
I regret that no information is readily available on rates, or on purchase prices of machinery.
Because most of the information in these publications is presented in considerable detail, I give below some illustrative extracts.
735W
PURCHASE PRICE OF INPUTS, EUA PER 100 KG., 1976 West Germany France Italy Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg United Kingdom Ireland Denmark Feed for dairy cows … … … 19.43 19.07 17.52 17.53 19.13 17.25 16.56 n.a n.a. Maize … … … 15.85 14.30 14.63 15.70 18.73 17.28 13.80 n.a. n.a. Nitrate of ammonia … … … 46.50 36.52 29.30 41.59 39.29 38.23 27.61 38.66 44.62 Fuel oil (100 litres) … … … 11.97 13.50 9.02 11.19 11.24 11.70 10.70 11.02 11.34
MARKET VALUE AND RENT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND, EUA PER HECTARE, 1975 West Germany France Italy Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg United Kingdom Ireland Denmark Market value … … … 6,107 2,629 (arable) 1,557 (arable) 5,792 (arable) 7,124 (arable) n.a. 1,952 (E &W) n.a. 4,133 Rent … … … 85.24 40.83 (arable) n.a. 89.00 84.49 n.a. 35.59 (E &W) n.a. n.a.
AVERAGE HOURLY EARNINGS OF MEN IN 1975—£ STERLING West Germany France Italy Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg United Kingdom Denmark Ireland 1.33 0.94 0.79 1.57 1.30 0.62 0.92 1.62 0.73
736W
LABOUR COSTS PER HOUR OF A PERMANENT GENERAL WORKER INCLUDING SOCIAL CHARGES 1975 or 1975–76—£ STERLING 1.27 1.04 1.04 2.16 1.36 n.a. 1.11 1.81 0.65 Note: Converted from national currencies at average yearly market rates of exchange.