§ Mr. James Johnsonasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give details of the latest estimate he has made of expenditure in 1978–79 by the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce on market regulation under the common agricultural policy, together with comparable figures for the preceding year.
§ Mr. John Silkin:Following are details of the latest estimates for the financial year 1978–79, together with comparable figures for the outturn in the financial year 1977–78.
EXPENDITURE BY THE INTERVENTION BOARD FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE £million Latest estimate of outturn1978–79 Actual outturn 1977–78 Cereals 29.7 —4.3 Beef and Veal —13.1 11.4 Pigmeat —0.7 —0.2 Sugar 89.2 86.7 Herbage Seeds 1.9 1.2 Hops 1.2 0.6 Processed Products 21.5 13.4 Milk Products 149.1 70.7 Others 14.2 5.8 293.0 185.3 Expenditure by the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce includes the beef variable premium scheme, refunds on imports and exports, certain production subsidies, the school milk subsidy the gross cost of aids for private storage and animal feed and the net cost of commodities bought into intervention and subsequently sold. Of the estimated out-turn for 1978–79, £257.9 million is expected to be financed from the guarantee section of the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), the balance being financed from Exchequer funds; in 1977–78,£118.2 million was financed from EAGGF. Some of the expenditure shown above benefits consumers and overseas exporting interests rather than United Kingdom producers.
The consumer butter subsidy, which is paid through the Intervention Board, is not included in the above table.