Cereals Co-responsibility Levy (Hansard, 19 July 1989)

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will press for the discontinuation of the cereals co-responsibility levy in future years.

§ Mr. Ryder
Yes. I will continue to press for the levy to be replaced by price cuts, which are a far better way of dealing with a surplus.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish in theOfficial Report the declared purpose of funds generated by the cereals co-responsibility levy; and how have they actually been spent.

§ Mr. Ryder
When the Commission of the European Communities proposed the introduction of the cereals co-responsibility levy in 1986 it declared that the objective of the levy was to make producers more aware of market realities and to make them contribute to financing the burden placed on the European Community budget by surplus production. Income from the levy has been used to offset expenditure in the cereals sector.