§ Mr. Martenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the present intervention price of skimmed milk powder in £ sterling per tonne and at what price it can be repurchased by farmers; what is the present size of the skimmed milk mountain, showing each country separately; and what is the annual cost in £ sterling of storage of the total intervention stocks.
§ Mr. BishopThe present intervention price of skimmed milk powder is £551.97 per tonne. Powder that has been in store for at least 12 months is sold at £563.70 per tonne for any use. Powder taken into store before 1st July 1976 is270W sold by monthly tender for use in pig and poultry feed and at a fixed price 10 units of account per tonne higher. The prices set at the last such adjudication were £79.20 per tonne and £85.06 per tonne respectively.
The quantities of skimmed milk powder held in intervention stores in the Community at 27th April 1978 were:
Tonnes Belgium 53,119 Denmark 23,017 Germany 521,036 France 21,964 Ireland 23,388 Italy 7,480 Luxembourg 4,124 Netherlands 62,559 United Kingdom 60,570 Total 777,257 (Source: EEC Commission.) Member States are reimbursed by the Commission for the cost of holding intervention stocks at standard rates. It is estimated that the amount the Community would pay for holding the present stocks for a year would be of the order of 11.6 million units of account or some £7.6 million converted at the Community budget rate of 1.53 eua=£1 sterling.