§ Mr. MorleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many gallons of milk were consumed in England in the most recent year for which figures are available; and how many gallons of milk were produced in England in that year.
§ Mr. JackThe volume of milk produced and sold through milk marketing schemes in England in 1992 was 9,743 million litres or 2,143 million gallons.
Total liquid milk consumption figures are not separately available for England. However, for England and Wales as a whole the volume of milk produced and sold through milk marketing schemes and subsequently used for liquid milk was 5,857 million litres, or 1,288 million gallons, in 1992. Except for the effect of trade in liquid milk, this will equate closely to consumption as measured in whole milk equivalent. This represents 52 per cent. of the total sales through marketing schemes for England and Wales of 11,198 million litres, or 2,463 million gallons.
These figures exclude milk sold outside milk marketing schemes, milk consumed on-farm, wastage and milk fed to stock.
The consumption of milk in the form of all products is difficult to assess because of problems of double counting when milk is manufactured into more than one product. However, approximately 15,880 million litres of milk were required to produce all the milk and milk products consumed in the United Kingdom in 1992. This figure is available only at the United Kingdom level. It should also be noted that some elements of this milk—for example, the skimmed milk by-products of imported butter production —are not consumed in the United Kingdom. Total United Kingdom production sold through milk marketing schemes in 1992 was 13,525 million litres.