§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish a table showing the current or most recently available levels of export refund available for sales of food from the European Economic Community to the Soviet Union in terms of pence per pound in respect of foodstuffs like sugar, beef, flour and other items purchased retail by consumers, in pound sterling per ton for items like wheat, barley and other items not normally purchased retail, and pence per litre for wine; and if he will publish a further table showing the approximate sale prices in the same measures and volumes which these levels of export refund would imply, in the same way as he did for European Economic Community sales of butter to the Soviet Union in his answer of 30 October 1980, Official Report, column 356, at a time when butter sales enjoyed the benefit of export refunds.
§ Mr. Buchanan-Smith[pursuant to his reply, 1 February 1982, c. 70–71]: The current levels of export refunds applicable to sales from the European Community to the USSR are as follows:
406W
Wholesale basis (a) £/tonne Wheat 44.72 Barley 28.64 Malt 39.09 Skimmed Milk Powder 276.14 Butter oil nil Retail basis (a) per lb. Butter nil Wheat flour 2.72 Beef NA (b) Pigmeat NA (b) Poultrymeat NA (b) Sugar (white) 13.4 (per kg) Wine 7 (c) (per litre) Footnotes
- (a) Converted at the green rate and adjusted for monetary co-efficient and MCAs.
- (b) Export refunds vary greatly according to the category of animal, type of meat, etc. It is not possible to give representative figures.
- (c) An average has been taken over levels of refund which vary slightly according to alcoholic strength.
The information requested on approximate sale prices could be provided only in terms of notional estimates derived from a variety of different bases. After close examination I have concluded that such figures would not be meaningful and could be misleading.