§ 24. Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the objective of the European Economic Community decision to provide further subsidies to enable surplus butter to be fed to cows; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GummerNo such decision has been taken. But a proposal is currently under discussion which would introduce a subsidy on the incorporation into animal feed of intervention butter purchased before July 1983. The aim of this is to reduce the oldest stocks for which no other outlets are likely to be available.
§ 49. Mr. Tom Coxasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much butter was stored in intervention (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) in the European Community on the latest date for which figures are available; and what percentage increases these figures represent over the previous year.
§ Mr. GummerAs at 26 June 1986 there were 228,136 tonnes of intervention butter stored in the United Kingdom and 1,288,081 tonnes of intervention butter stored in the European Community, as a whole. These figures are, respectively, 29 per cent. and 33 per cent. higher than the corresponding figures on 27 June 1985.