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Mr. Beith: The Minister seems to be aware of the problem, but is perhaps underestimating its seriousness. If on a 700 kg animal there is a £200 premium for treating it as dead weight, specialist beef farmers will be drawn into using the abattoir directly, thereby putting the local mart, upon which they depend in good times, out of business. Other beef farmers will find it impractical to take that option, and will be at a financial loss.
Mr. Baldry: I know that none of the farm interests would wish to have the dead weight option or the dead weight coefficients taken away. If Liberal Democrat Members went out into the highways and byways saying that they would take this money away from farmers, they would receive a dusty response. It is recognised that there are swings and roundabouts. I suspect that more business will go live weight through cull cows to the livestock marts because the coefficients make it to farmers' advantage to do it that way. There will be considerable benefits to clean beef producers of going to abattoirs and to the owners of cull cows of going to the livestock mart. The fact that abattoirs and livestock marts have agreed a
basis on which cattle can be called forward from livestock marts that are collection centres to be dealt with by the abattoirs is good news.
Mr. Nicholls: My hon. Friend has said a number of times that he cannot be expected to conjure rendering facilities out of thin air. Perhaps he can speak about a particular problem that has been put to me by the NFU. It concerns casualty animals. Does he feel able to say to the United Kingdom Renderers Association that it is artificially restricting its activity to 20 abattoirs and that one of the consequences is that it is virtually impossible to dispose of casualty animals humanely? That is a well-founded point and, although it is not the Minister's fault, he may be able to do something about it.
Mr. Baldry: I certainly intend to speak about casualty stock. The hon. Member for North Cornwall mentioned six points, and I intend to deal with all of them. One concerned casualty animals. I hope to be able to reassure my hon. Friend that we have in place proper provision for casualty stock. I shall continue to tell every abattoir in the scheme--not just the 21 that are in it at the moment, but the larger number which I hope will come into it--that a precondition of being in the scheme is that they must take a commonsense approach to casualty animals that are in need of emergency slaughter. I shall deal with that in greater detail.
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman (Lancaster) rose--
Mr. Baldry: The hon. Member for North Cornwall is brave if he thinks that he can come between me and my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster (DameE. Kellett-Bowman).
Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman: I thank my hon. Friend and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for having the good sense to choose Lancaster as one of the centres. It has a popular auction and many live weight cattle are brought to it. We are delighted about that, but there is a slight problem in that, like others, we are rather short of abattoir space. Would it be possible to open in the near future the abattoirs at Clitheroe and Oldham, which we have at the top of the list? That would give our market an enormous boost.
Mr. Baldry: My hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Sir M. Lennox-Boyd) wrote to me today making a similar point. I want to get more abattoirs on stream as soon as possible, but to do that I have to be able to bring on stream more cold storage capacity. I hope to do that in the next two or three weeks. There is a finite number of renderers, and more abattoirs without cold storage facilities would force the renderers to use their limited amount of transport to visit more abattoirs. That would be less efficient and lead to a smaller throughput.
I hope that all hon. Members appreciate that the scheme will be in place for some months and that we must get it right. It is important to proceed in good order. As we introduce more cold storage facilities, we can use more
abattoirs. There are some excellent facilities. My right hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King) has an excellent abattoir in his constituency, and I hope to bring it on stream in the near future. Cold storage will enable us to store parts of beasts that do not need to be rendered immediately. I want to clear the backlog as speedily as possible.
Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd (Morecambe and Lunesdale):
My hon. Friend will appreciate that there are many interventions because this is a complicated scheme. He is to be congratulated because what he is trying to do is unprecedented. I should like to add to what my hon. Friend the Member for Lancaster (Dame E. Kellett-Bowman) said. In the north-east, there are five slaughterers on the list of 21, and in the north-west there are two. I do not want to engage in beggar-my-neighbour tactics, but I think that my hon. Friend will agree that his reasoning, which I am sure is well thought out, should be explained either now or in the winding-up speech so that no one in the north-west feels that he is being disadvantaged. The figures need clarification, and I am sure that my hon. Friend can give it.
Mr. Baldry:
I certainly do not intend any part of the country to become disadvantaged. As the scheme develops, in parts of the country where there is a need for greater slaughter capacity more speedily, we shall bring on more abattoirs. I want to ensure that the scheme gives confidence to consumers and retailers that only young beef is entering the UK market. I also want to ensure that farmers are confident that they will be paid speedily and that all hon. Members are confident that the scheme is running efficiently.
Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset):
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Mr. Baldry:
I shall make some more progress and then give way to my hon. Friend.
We sought amendments to the original regulations at the behest of farming interests to get a top-up premium for heifers and steers and a dead weight option. It was not until late on 26 April that it was possible to obtain final agreement to the various provisions of the scheme that had been requested on behalf of farmers. Our success in getting agreement for a top-up payment for steers and heifers and a dead weight option has been greatly appreciated by the industry. The following weekend, immediately after the Friday when we secured agreement to the dead weight option, officials in MAFF and the intervention board worked throughout the weekend to ensure that abattoirs and livestock marts that might tentatively have become collection centres had all the necessary information as speedily as possible. That was got to them on 30 April, and the first animals under the scheme were slaughtered on 3 May.
As some of my hon. Friends have said, this is an unprecedented scheme--the largest and most complicated slaughter programme that has ever been introduced in this country. After all the regulations had been agreed, a number of legitimate sectoral and industry concerns had to be met. It is important for everyone to recognise that every animal slaughtered under the scheme has to be rendered prior to disposal. It is not possible simply to
slaughter and store a whole carcase. Waste material amounting to 30 to 40 per cent. of every animal has to be immediately rendered.
The UK has a finite rendering capacity. Prior to 20 March, huge amounts of animals that are now having to be rendered would have gone into the human food chain. It is impossible simply to introduce further rendering capacity overnight. I cannot suddenly find that capacity: it would take several months. In addition to rendering for the 30-month cull scheme, renderers continue to have to render offal from animals under the age of 30 months for the retail industry. I do not think there is any dispute about the accuracy of the renderers' estimation. There was a suggestion earlier that, in some way, the renderers were holding people to ransom. That was an unworthy suggestion. Judging by the groups that I have met, there is no doubt that the maximum rendering capacity that is available for the scheme is some 18,000 animals a week in England and Wales, and approximately 25,000 a week throughout the United Kingdom. I hope that we shall reach the target of 18,000 animals this week and in subsequent weeks until we start to introduce cold storage. As I said in my letter to hon. Members, I hope to increase that capacity in the coming weeks.
Mr. Bruce:
I intervene because I know that, every time I have been to see my hon. Friend about matters concerning my farmers, he has been extremely adept at finding a way through for them. Needless to say, South Dorset farmers are very concerned. They have had their dead weight scheme and a local abattoir has been designated--S. J. Norman and Sons at Bridport. Unfortunately, now that the abattoir is telling them that they can send in their cattle, they have been told that the renderers will not come and service them, so they cannot take their cattle in. I raise that point only because I know that my hon. Friend will have an instant answer. If he does not, I am perfectly happy to start up the barbecue in my garden. If no one wants to come and eat, it will of course get burnt, but if they do, we will give it away.
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