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5 pm
Mr. John Townend (East Yorkshire): Everyone accepts that agriculture is in the worst state that it has been in for many years, certainly since I entered Parliament. The big difference this time is that, previously, when one sector has been on the floor, another has been profitable; at the moment, practically nothing is profitable.
My constituency is one of the major pig producing areas of the United Kingdom and is therefore suffering greatly. Even the most efficient and successful producers are losing tens of thousands of pounds every week. Unless action is taken immediately, there will be a large drop in the size of the UK herd, many pig men will go bankrupt and out of business, and the UK will become more dependent on European imports, which is what the continentals want.
The major problem is that, even though our best pig farmers are the most efficient in the world, they cannot compete because there is not a level playing field. The major responsibility for that lies with politicians of all parties. They have become obsessed with hygiene and welfare standards and have imposed a greater burden on our industry than is carried by our EU competitors.
First, sow stalls and tethers have been banned in this country, but they have not yet been banned anywhere else in Europe. I talked out the original Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Boston and Skegness (Sir R. Body) to implement that measure, but the Government of the day, with the unanimous support of those in opposition, brought it back through regulations. At the time, I said that implementation should be deferred until our major competitors had similar regulations or there would be disaster for the industry, but no one listened.
Secondly, as colleagues have mentioned, since the BSE crisis, hygiene costs--especially in abattoirs--have been greater here than elsewhere. If we want higher standards than the rest of the world, we should not put our industries in jeopardy but pay the cost out of general taxation.
Thirdly, our producers are not allowed to castrate, so the demand for large pigs has to be met by imports. Fourthly, our producers cannot use bonemeal, whereas
every other country in the Community can. In addition, our producers have had to carry the burden of the Government's annual penal increases in the tax on fuel, which has put up their costs.
It is time for Government action if we are to prevent the destruction of a large part of our industry. It is wrong that pigmeat, especially bacon, that has been produced under food safety and animal welfare regulations that would make it illegal here should be allowed to be imported into this country,. We should ban all imports that do not come up to the standards that we require. Then our competitors' costs would rise to our level and the crisis would be over.
The Government will say that that is against European Union rules, but I say, "Tell that to the French." We seem to be the only suckers in Europe who put the rules before our national interests. We have not started a trade war; it is the French who are breaking the regulations. No one suggests that because they are doing so they will leave the EU. Labour Members have the nerve to say that what my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo) said from the Conservative Front Bench would result in our leaving the EU--that is absolute nonsense.
The Government say that we have, at enormous expense, dealt with the BSE problem--I think that a figure of £4.5 billion was mentioned--and had the ban lifted by the EU and that we must build confidence in our exports. We would all agree with that. But, as has been pointed out by other colleagues, how can we expect the continentals to be convinced that British beef is safe if it is illegal for us to buy beef on the bone, yet it is legal to buy French beef produced from animals that have been fed sewage?
I understand that the English scientific advisers to MAFF say that there is now no health reason for the ban to continue, but they cannot get the agreement of the Welsh and Scottish. That is the result of devolution. It is improper that the English beef industry should be penalised because of what officials in Scotland and Wales think.
The French and German refusal to lift the ban is unacceptable. What do the Government do in retaliation? Nothing. They say that we must obey all the rules and leave it to the European Union to sort out. It will be most interesting to hear what the Government will say if the EU does not sort it out today. While the French prevaricate and keep our beef out, our export market is unable to recover.
We must admit that the French are dishonest about agriculture. In France there have been lots of cases of BSE, or, as French farmers call it, the JCB disease. When they identify a cow with BSE, they bring in a JCB, dig a big hole, bury the cow and do not report the case. Now we find that they have been introducing human excrement into the animal food chain. This revolting practice--I cannot think of a better word--could well carry with it health risks. Until we are certain of the implications, we should use this opportunity, which the French have given us, to ban the import of French meat.
Of course, the Prime Minister has refused to act in this way to help our agriculture industry. Why? Because his priority is to be a good European and popular in Brussels. He has not even got the guts to back the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who is personally boycotting French produce. Unlike my Front-Bench
colleague, I congratulate the Minister on making this stand on behalf of British farming and British interests. I am doing the same, although it hurts me greatly not to drink French wine at home.
Why does the Prime Minister not do the same? Why does the whole Cabinet not set an example to the British people? It is because the Prime Minister no longer sees himself as a Briton; he sees himself as a federal European. After devolution for Scotland and Wales, and once we have joined the single currency and he has made sure that this country is one of many provinces of a federal Europe, his ambition is to be President Blair of Europe. Hecalls Conservative Members extremists, but he is the extremist--the extreme European who ignores the interests of British agriculture. To curry favour with Europe at our expense will cost him dear. The more he acts like this, the more likely it is that he will lose the referendum on the euro.
Finally, the French are taking illegal action against British beef. The retaliatory boycott by the British public of French produce is legal. We, as individuals, are simply exercising our freedom of choice. The subsequent retaliation by the French against that legal action--they are stopping British lorries illegally and examining their loads--is unacceptable. The French police, as we saw on television, stood by and did nothing. When reporters asked the French policemen whether this action was not illegal, they said, "Je ne sais pas." Do we really want to be part of a federal Europe with a federal police force which acts like that?
In the latest report, we learn that the French will offer a so-called compromise today. There will be a fudge. It will not benefit British agriculture one iota. It will increase the burden on British farmers, with more restrictions and tests, and at the same time it will not enable us to rebuild our beef export trade to France. It is all aimed at saving the Prime Minister's face and keeping alive his dream of bouncing us into the euro, to show that we will be part of the great European drive to political union.
Mr. Mark Todd (South Derbyshire):
Naturally, this debate has been dominated by consideration of current events. I do not wish to dwell long on them, but it would be wrong not to comment briefly. I am clear that, in our dispute with the French, we have law and science on our side. Peremptory, ill-conceived bans will only threaten our £10 billion-worth of exports of food and drink to the European Union.
I have written to the Minister urging assistance to deal with the extra burdens facing the pig sector on offal disposal. I believe that the steps that he has announced today of further investigating the potential for lifting part of the ban through the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Council is commendable. However, yesterday and the day before, I had the pleasure of attending events hosted by the National Farmers Union and the Meat and
Livestock Commission, at which the tone was forward-looking about the future of British food and farming.
Several key factors were rightly addressed. The first was the critical importance of quality of produce. The second was the ability to supply consistently to meet a market need. The third was the need to improve the range of produce available from British farms. It is alarmingto read in today's Financial Times that Whitbread's Beefeater chain claims that it can source only 50 per cent. of its beef requirements from British producers and has to supplement the balance from Argentinian suppliers. It worries me, bearing in mind the beef crisis here, that we are not able to meet the demand of a key retailer.
A representative of Geest who spoke at yesterday's NFU event drew attention to the fact that its garlic requirements were not being met by British suppliers and that it had to import. We have heard the story of organic produce. The purchaser from Sainsbury's made it clear that 70 per cent. of the organic produce that he was in charge of purchasing came from foreign sources. Clearly, we must improve the range of produce available from our farming communities to meet customer demand.
Another issue is the behaviour and performance of our processing sector. We have to search for greater efficiency. I will not repeat the points that I made in last week's debate about the dairy sector, but they could be applied equally to other parts of our processed foods sector. There is evidence that we have an elongated supply chain that is relatively inefficient compared to that of many of our competitors. We have to integrate that supply chain better. I commend the initiative that my right hon. Friend the Minister has made so far to examine the totality of the food supply chain rather than purely the farm end of the problem.
In retailing, we need to meet the need for clear labelling. The purpose of yesterday's conference was to seek a clear branding of British food. I commend that initiative. It is right that suppliers in all parts of the food chain are undertaking it jointly rather than relying on the Government to put it together. The initiative should be producer and retailer led and focused on customer need, not bureaucracy.
We need to see more product development in the retail sector, too. It is clear that the customers of retailers are moving ahead of the provision that is available in the shops. We continue to find shortages in some areas, possibly due to a failure adequately to identify customer trends. Better quality presentation in shops of goods from British suppliers is of critical importance. Clarity of branding is most important; items should be consistently presented so that it is clear where they come from and what quality can be expected. We should build on the strengths of some of our regional brands--another issue that I touched on during last week's debate, so I will not expand the point today.
The importance of partnership was another key point that came through at the conference. I have never run a business in which I thought it a good idea to abuse my customers, yet the food sector adopts a curious approach, in which mutual abuse between those involved in different parts of the food chain is still a regular feature--one that is repeated and amplified in this House. I have never found such an approach to be helpful.
There are faults in the retail sector--the supermarkets have much to answer for as a result of the way in which they have dominated the food chain. I cite a voice that is relatively familiar to Members of this House:
There is room for significant improvement in retailer performance, but that can best be driven by partnership with the producer sector. Specifically, retailers mustlead in product development--in developing strong, meaningful brands. They should consider partnership funding on organic conversion, and not merely guaranteed longer contracts, which they have--admittedly--offered to those seeking conversion. There is no reason thatthey should not directly fund additional assistance. Government must facilitate such partnerships, and ensure that we place no greater burdens on those sectors than do our competitors. I dwelt at length on that point in last week's debate; I shall say no more about it now.
"We (The multiple retailing) industry has also lost valuable friends, including the British farmer. They are in crisis and we have to say--what have we really done to help? The bitter truth is not a lot."
That was said by the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mr. Norman), who also holds a position with Asda.
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