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Dairy Industry
9. Mr. Wareing: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he last met representatives of the dairy industry to discuss problems facing the industry. [4136]
Mr. Baldry: My right hon. and learned Friend the Minister and his ministerial colleagues regularly meet representatives of the dairy industry to discuss issues of importance to them.
Mr. Wareing: When the Minister next meets representatives of the dairy industry, will he bring to their notice the scandal highlighted in The Observer involving at least two farms that recycle milk which is past its sell-by date, mix it with fresh milk and sell it through supermarkets to the general public? Furthermore, will he carry out a thoroughgoing investigation to ensure that there are not other examples in other parts of the country, and enforce the dairy hygiene regulations that were brought into law this year?
Mr. Baldry: If there are any breaches of the regulations, and the breaches are known about, prosecutions follow. It is as straightforward as that.
Mr. John Greenway: During his discussions with dairy farmers, has my hon. Friend received any representations about the effect of bovine spongiform encephalopathy on dairy farm incomes? Does he agree that it is a touch inconsistent for the Labour party to complain that our schoolchildren are not being given enough milk to drink, when it considers it to be perfectly okay to ban beef in school canteens? Is it not about time that hon. Members on both sides of the House recognised that both the milk and the beef produced by farmers in this country are of very wholesome quality--the finest of any country in the European Union? The milk is safe to drink and the beef is safe to eat, and both should be available in all schools.
Mr. Baldry: I just think that every local authority should calmly and quietly consider the chief medical officer's advice on the subject.
Mr. Tyler: In view of those comments, will the Minister give us an assurance that the statement by the Parliamentary Secretary, the hon. Member for Tiverton (Mrs. Browning), to me in the debate in July--
- "We have never ruled out categorically either vertical or horizontal transmission"--[Official Report, 13 July 1995; Vol. 263, c. 1186.]-- still represents the Government's position? What steps will he now take to reassure not only consumers but the many people in the livestock industry who are genuinely confused by the Government's advice, so that we can have some credible advice and guidance?
Agricultural Efficiency
10. Mr. Pawsey: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the relative efficiency of agriculture in the United Kingdom and in other major EU countries. [4137]
Mr. Douglas Hogg: I believe that United Kingdom farmers can compete effectively with their counterparts in other major countries of the European Union.
Mr. Pawsey: I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for confirming the efficiency of the British farming industry. However, does he agree that the nonsense of the CAP distorts the free market, and that its cost--the billions that it costs British taxpayers--enables less efficient foreign industries to compete unfairly with the United Kingdom industry?
Mr. Hogg: There are indeed serious defects in the CAP, to some of which my hon. Friend has drawn attention. We have been forward in pressing the case for far-reaching reform of the CAP, and Commissioner Fischler has now produced a paper accepting that the status quo is not sustainable. I welcome that fact, and we shall push for substantial reform.
Mr. Campbell-Savours: While we are talking about the efficiency of milk producers, if the Minister of State can really buy four pints of milk for 26p, will the right hon. and learned Gentleman advise his colleague to resign his seat and go into the milk business, to buy a milk tanker, take it round to his local supermarket and fill it up with milk in the half-gallon bottles that it sells, and then sell that milk to a farmer, so that the farmer can sell it on to a milk processor? If he did that, he would make a 100 per cent. profit.
Mr. Hogg: It is quite plain that the hon. Gentleman was not listening to my hon. Friend the Minister of State. I should add that my hon. Friend has many talents, and I am sure that he would make a splendid milkman.
Mr. Dykes: May I urge my right hon. and learned Friend to visit the three very efficient farms in Harrow, East? It is always an interesting phenomenon to visit urban farms. Will he confirm that one of the ways of enhancing the efficiency of Britain's farms would be to adopt the single currency, bearing it in mind that the National Farmers Union now endorses such a policy?
Mr. Hogg: My hon. Friend has represented many interests in his time in the House of Commons, but I did not know that he was such a prominent spokesman for the agricultural community. I am delighted to hear that there are three farmers in Harrow, East. That community will be the easiest to meet in its totality.
Mr. Simpson: I am glad that the Minister is keen to recognise the efficiency of our agriculture industry. Will he explain why this country currently has a trade deficit of £6 billion in food and drink, 63 per cent. of which is with countries that have no climatic advantage over the United Kingdom? Will he explain the compelling logic and virtue of agriculture policies that have seen imports from the EC increase by 20 per cent. since 1980 and
exports decrease by 3 per cent.? If we have an efficient agriculture industry, what is the point of a policy that discourages Britain's ability to provide its own food?
Mr. Hogg: There are two points to be made. First, the hon. Gentleman is enunciating a policy of fortress Britain, which--whatever else may be true about it-- is incompatible with the policy of Opposition Front Benchers. Secondly, on a point of specific detail, if he contrasts food exports last September--the latest available figures--with the previous year, he will see that our exports have gone up by 10 per cent., whereas imports have gone up by 4 per cent. In other words, exports are doing rather well at the moment.
Apples
11. Mr. Jacques Arnold: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what efforts he has made to improve the marketing of British apples. [4138]
Mr. Boswell: We have a range of assistance to help our growers. For example, we paid a marketing grant of £150,000 towards establishing the largest top fruit marketing group, and have seconded a leading horticulturist to boost exports. These complement the welcome efforts of the industry itself.
Mr. Arnold: I welcome the Government's support for the marketing of apples because, as my hon. Friend knows, the best apples in Britain are grown in Kent. How does it help the marketing of those apples if massive subsidies are made for the production of apples on the continent? In particular, may I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the subsidy of FF240 million to French apple producers and the subsidy of 11.6 million Dutch guilders to Dutch producers? How do those subsidies help British producers get their excellent apples to the market?
Mr. Boswell: Our help to the British apple industry and its exports and marketing is well targeted. Any assistance given by other member states to their producers-- especially in areas of production and surplus--will be subject to the most rigorous scrutiny and, if necessary, will be referred to the European Commission.
Mr. Foulkes: Is it true that relations between the Deputy Prime Minister and the chairman of the Tory party have sunk so low that the Deputy Prime Minister has been reduced to eating an apple a day?
Mr. Boswell: With great respect to the hon. Gentleman, I advise him to eat an apple a day--he will then feel a great deal better himself.
Sir Roger Moate: Given the general agreement in this country, on both sides of the House and in the industry that the present intervention system, particularly for apples, is quite intolerable--it is bad for the consumer, bad for the taxpayers and very bad for British apple growing--will my hon. Friend get a message to the Prime Minister in Madrid that we must not accept any deal that imposes for any length of time a continuation of that intolerable and unacceptable intervention system?
Mr. Boswell: My hon. Friend has great knowledge of the apple industry, which is an important interest in his part of Kent. I agree that the intervention system is harmful. We are entirely opposed to it and we have registered that opinion with the Community. We look
forward to continuing negotiations towards a satisfactory outcome that removes the difficulties, costs and wastefulness of the current system.
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