HC Deb 11 December 1980 vol 995 cc474-5W
Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food why the EEC sold the Soviet Union 149,026,300 litres of wine from its stockpiles in the 10 months since the invasion of Afghanistan compared with 37,650,500 litres in the previous five years; what was the average price charged to the Soviets per litre in the 10 months concerned; what estimate he has made of the subsidy involved; and what information he has from international sources about the price charged by the Soviet Union trading organisations to consumers for this wine in 1980 and the use which the Soviets made of this quantity of European wine.

Mr. Buchanan-Smith

The Community does not itself sell or stockpile wine, but does make subsidies available for export and for the distillation of surpluses. It has long been the Community's policy to seek export outlets for wine where this is economically advantageous. Since the USA has never sold wine to the USSR, the decision of the Foreign Affairs Council of 15 January, to the effect that Community supplies should not replace United States supplies on the Russian market, did not require the Commission to exclude the USSR from the permitted destinations.

The total subsidy is estimated to be about £9 million. This compares with the estimated cost of £15 million to distil an equivalent volume of surplus wine.

I have no information on the selling price of the wine in the USSR.