§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate by how much the average food bill of the average family of four is altered as a direct result of the common agricultural policy, giving figures separately for(a) dairy products, (b) sugar, (c) beef, (d) cereals, (e) rice, (f) fruit and vegetables, (g) potatoes, (h) oilseeds, (i) linseed, (j) olive oil, (k) wine and (l) tobacco. [16154]
§ Mr. JackA note on "The Cost of the Common Agricultural Policy to Consumers and Taxpayers" was placed in the Library of the House on 9 March 1995. Separate figures are not available by commodity, but some information for the European Community as a whole is given in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development publication "Agricultural Policies' Markets and Trade, Monitoring and Outlook 1994" a copy of which is in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he will estimate the cost of the common agricultural policy to each household in the United Kingdom, breaking this figure down into(a) the running costs of the common agricultural policy and (b) the amount which the policy adds to food prices; [16150]
(2) if he will estimate the combined cost of the common agricultural policy and other national farm aids to the United Kingdom; and if he will break down this figure into (a) payments directly or indirectly received by farmers and (b) the cost to consumers in the form of higher food prices. [16151]
§ Mr. JackA note on "The Cost of the Common Agricultural Policy to Consumers and Taxpayers" was placed in the Library of the House on 9 March 1995.
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the price at which British wholesalers buy(a) linseed, (b) tobacco, (c) cereals, (d) oilseeds, (e) milk and (f) beef per tonne; what he estimates the price of each commodity would be in a free market without European Community price intervention; what are the levels of European Community production and consumption of each commodity; what is the level of common agricultural policy on expenditure on subsidies to each commodity; and what is the cost to the British Exchequer of European Commodity intervention in the market in each community. [16153]
§ Mr. JackPrices received by producers for agricultural commodities are reported to Eurostat, and consistent series for cereals, oilseeds, milk and beef appear in the publication "Agricultural Prices". No representative price series is available for linseed or tobacco.
620WIt is not possible to estimate what the price of each commodity would be in the free market without European Community intervention without making a large number of hypothetical assumptions.
Estimates of production and consumption in the European Community for each commodity are given in the "Agricultural Situation in the Community, 1993 Report".
The 1994 budget outturn estimates of common agricultural policy expenditure on these commodities are as follows:
mecu £ million Cereals (Market support) 2,087 1,612 Arable area payments: Cereals 5,540 4,280 Linseed 125 97 Oilseeds 2,549 1,969 Tobacco 1,057 816 Milk 4,249 3,282 Beef 3,467 2,678 Details of the Exchequer cost of CAP support in the UK for these commodities, except tobacco, for which there is no expenditure in the UK, can be found in section I of table 9.1 of "Agriculture in the UK". The UK also contributes to the EC budget as a whole, which funds the cost of the CAP support in other member states.
Copies of the publications referred to are in the Library of the House.
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate by how much common agricultural prices have risen in weak currency countries as a direct result of the system of pegging farm prices to the deutschmark via the switchover system for each country. [16137]
§ Mr. JackAs support prices are set by the Council of Ministers in the annual price-fixing negotiations, it is not possible to say what prices would have been set had the switchover system not existed.
The switchover mechanism was abolished on 1 February 1995. This did not result in any change in the level of CAP support prices in national currency terms. However, there will be no further increases as a result of this mechanism.