§ Mr. StrangTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many tonnes of each food commodity has been given by the United Kingdom to the former members of the USSR since the Maastricht summit; how many tonnes of each commodity donated by the United Kingdom came from intervention stores; and what the net cost has been to the United Kingdom to date.
§ Mr. CurryA total of 120 tonnes of British beef has been delivered to the former Soviet Union so far under the EC's Maastricht emergency aid package of 200 million ecu. The remaining 2,080 tonnes of the amount that the United Kingdom agreed to deliver under the tranche of the package was due to leave the port of Hull by the end of last week for St. Petersburg and Moscow. All of this beef is from intervention stocks held in the United Kingdom.
Under the second tranche of the package, the United Kingdom is to supply a further 1,500 tonnes of beef from intervention.
The cost of the meat is covered by the EC. Arrangements to reclaim transport costs of the operation from the EC are also being discussed. The cost to the United Kingdom, other than staff time involved in organising deliveries, will come through our contribution to the EC aid budget of some 18 per cent.