§ Mr. Warrenasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will issue a statement showing the progress made by each of the member states of the EEC in implementing the requirements of the dairy products quota system and the reasons for the delays in the required implementation by some of the member states.
§ Mr. MacGregorI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Tatton (Mr. Hamilton) on Monday 26 November 1984 at column402.
§ Mr. Spenceasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by what percentage amount the national milk price has altered in each European Economic Community country including the United Kingdom for each of the years 1982–83 and 1983–84; what change is proposed in each country for 1984–85; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MacGregorAt each price fixing the Community sets the target price for milk to which the various dairy support prices under the common agricultural policy are related. The following table shows the target price converted into national currencies at the green rates. The Commission has not yet made proposals in respect of the 1985–86 marketing year. It should be noted that the target prices cannot be equated with actual market prices, which will vary according to market circumstances, or with returns to producers (which will be affected by factors such as the actual level of returns from the market, production costs, and national inflation rates).
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Annual percentage changes in the European Community target price for milk in national currencies by member state 1982–83 to 1984–85 Percentage changes over previous marketing year 1982–83 1983–84 * 1984–85 Germany +7.1 +1.0 -5.2 France +14.2 +8.2 +5.9 Italy +16.1 +6.4 +6.8 Netherlands +8.3 +1.5 -0.6 Belgium/Luxembourg +16.4 +5.6 +4.6 United Kingdom +10.5 +2.3 0 Ireland +10.5 +7.1 +4.6 Denmark +14.2 +2.9 +2.2 Greece +16.7 +21.9 +17.2 * The green rates used are those applying at the start of each marketing year except in the case of Germany and The Netherlands in 1984–85 where account has been taken of the revaluations taking place on 1 January 1985.
§ Mr. Harrisasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he is yet in a position to invite more milk producers to join the outgoers' scheme.
§ Mr. MacGregorIt is our intention to invite further groups of producers to join the scheme as soon as this is warranted by the number not taking up earlier invitations. This week we shall be inviting a further 150 producers to join. These are producers who are offering up between 250,001 and 275,000 litres of quota, amounting to 39.3 million litres. As before, a small number have been excluded because milk production is a relatively small part of their overall farming enterprise.