§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing United Kingdom consumption of the principal agricultural products, the cost to the economy of the amount consumed in terms of farm gate or landed prices, including levies, and the cost of the same quantity purchased at the current world price.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe following table provides, for the principal foodstuffs, estimates of the total quantities for human comsumption in the United Kingdom in 1982. These have been valued at farm-gate or import prices as appropriate. For most commodities there is no single, accepted measure of the "world" price. The figures shown in the final column have been derived generally by subtracting the export refunds or import charges from the internal prices. But I would caution against drawing conclusions from these raw figures. The situation represented is hypothetical and the prices we might pay for imports in radically different circumstances would almost certainly differ from those indicated. It is also stressed that only part of any difference in values at internal and "world" prices represents a cost to the economy, the major part being a transfer between different sectors of the United Kingdom economy.
Commodity Supplies of principal foodstuffs for human consumption* Column (1) valued at farm-gate/import price† Column (1) valued at "world" prices‡ '000 tonnes £ million £ million (1) (2) (3) Wheat 4,933 616 374 Maize 1,560 217 115 Sugar 2,485 834 761 Butter 305 551 450 Cheese 350 620 367 Pork 732 1,027 886 Bacon and ham 476 641 516 Beef and veal 1,050 1,897 1,100 Sheepmeat 450 687 637 Poultry 814 755 655 Eggs 738 415 334 * Total United Kingdom new supplies mainly for human consumption but excluding the volume used for animal feed and seed. † A range of prices has been used as appropriate including market, intervention and threshold prices: the estimated value of butter consumption is net of the butter subsidy. ‡ Generally taken to be the internal price less the export refund or, in some cases, the import charge, reflecting, where appropriate, the special arrangements for sugar imported from ACP countries and butter from New Zealand.