§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, further to the answer of 9 March, Official Report, column 724, concerning United Kingdom consumption of the principal agricultural products, whether he will explain the basis of his estimate of £306 per tonne, for the world price of sugar, and if he 399W will publish in the Official Report a table showing (a) the London daily price for white sugar, (b) the United Kingdom export price to non-EEC markets after the payment of export restitutions, (c) the effective United Kingdom price before payment of export restitutions, (d) the average price of sugar imported from Brazil in 1983, (e) the quantity and average price of sugar exported to Iran and China in 1983 and (f) the international sugar agreement price, ex-Caribbean, plus freight and insurance to the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe price of £306 per tonne which the hon. Member has deduced from my previous reply represents an estimate of the price paid for raw sugar imported from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, converted to white sugar equivalent, plus a refining margin and less the average United Kingdom monetary compensatory amount.
The information relating to (a) to (f) inclusive is as follows:
- (a) The London daily price for white sugar on 20 March 1984 was $184.50/tonne (£128.35/tonne).
- (b) Export refunds are awarded by tender and therefore vary not only weekly but also between individual exporters
- (c) The effective support price for sugar in the United Kingdom is 58.93 ECU/100 kg (£364.57 per tonne). The export price before export refunds may be assumed to include this price plus transport and other costs from ex-factory to fob.
- (d) The average unit value of sugar imported from Brazil in 1983 was £134.60 per tonne.
- (e)(i) Quantity of white sugar exported to Iran in 1983 was 85,970 tonnes with an average unit value of about £111 per tonne.
- (ii) Quantity of white sugar exported to China in 1983 was 66,595 tonnes with an average unit value of about £111 per tonne.
- (f) Cif figures are not available but the fob average daily price for raw sugar calculated over the course of 1983 was 8.49 cents per lb (£123.4/tonne).
Sources: (d) and (e) Customs Trade Account Statistics;
(f) ISO records.