§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to his reply dated 24 October 1979 to the hon. Member for Newham, South (Mr. Spearing) concerning intervention buying, Official 611W Report, 24 October 1979, columns 229–30, whether he will publish in the Official Report corresponding figures for 1979 and 1980 together with the forecast for 1981.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithThe information is as follows:
Actual Expenditure 1979 £
Actual Expenditure 1980 £
1. Aids to private storage—sugar 14,648,857 18,275,205 2. Aids to animal feed—skimmed milk and skimmed milk powder 68,913,208 42,410,680 3. Production subsidy—cereals used for the manufacture of starch 12,133,231 11,499,395 4. Losses reimbursable by FEOGA—intervention buying 25,488,481 29,586,421 No estimates have been made for 1981 on a calendar year basis.
Table 1—Quantities in Community Intervention Stores and Aided Private Storage Commodity Public Storage Aided Private Storage Date Cereals (including Rice) 3.6 million tonnes nil 16 July 1981 Milk Products: (a) Butter 19,364 tonnes 188,935 tonnes 16 July 1981 (b) SMP 291,413 tonnes nil (c) Cheese nil 43,856 tonnes Beef 223,673 tonnes 24,939 tonnes *See note Pigmeat nil 47,000 tonnes †See note Sheepmeat nil nil — Sugar‡ nil nil — 31,816,000 Wine nil hectolitres 31 May 1981 Olive Oil 179,027 tonnes nil 31 May 1981 Oilseed Rape 8,100 tonnes nil 14 June 1981 Tobacco 46,971 tonnes nil 30 July 1981 Notes: * Public storage as reported on 11 June 1981. Private storage stocks, including veal, as reported on 29 April 1981. † Private storage stocks contracted under the most recent schemes. ‡ Sugar eligible for storage refunds has not been included because refunds relate to an orderly marketing, rather than to an intervention buying and storage, measure.
Table 2—Estimated Outturn for 1980 and Forecasts (a) for 1981 and 1982 of Disposals on World Markets (b) 1980 tonnes 1981 tonnes 1982 tonnes Cereals (including Rice) (c) (d) 19.1 million (d) 20.8 million of which wheat 11.6 million 12.1 million Milk Products (i) Butter 349,000 (d) 537,000 (d) 554,000 (ii) SMP 581,000 (d) 606,000 (d) 772,000 Beef and Veal 610,537 452,000 550,000 Sugar 619,350 3.1 million 3.2 million (a) These figures are the ones used by the Commission in compiling their Preliminary Draft Budgets.
(b) Disposals at prices below full EEC levels including disposals in the form of food aid.
(c) No firm estimate is yet available.
(d) No direct comparisons should be made between these figures and those for export refunds given in reply to the hon. Member's questions on the budgetary costs of the Guarantee Section of the EAGGF as the coverage is not identical.