Orders of the Day — Agriculture

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 29 July 1974.

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Photo of Mr Michael Jopling Mr Michael Jopling , Westmorland 12:00, 29 July 1974

No, I shall not give way. I see that the Minister is trying to restrain his hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen (Mr. Jones). He knows that the figures to which I am about to refer are damaging to what his hon. Friend was saying. During the four years we were in power, the figure in respect of the self-sufficiency percentage for beef products rose from 72 to 86 per cent. If the hon. Member for Carmarthen thinks that that is failure, he does not know what he is talking about. I regard that as one of the greatest triumphs of the Conservative Government at that time. I must get on, however, because many other hon. Members wish to take part in the debate.

The debate has centred on the effect of rising prices on agriculture, and my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton referred to this point in a startling way. Everybody in agriculture knows how in the last 12 months the cost of feeding stuffs has increased enormously. This is basically due to the increase in the world price of grain. We also know the impact on the industry of the rise in oil prices, which of course has had an inflationary effect. Such commodities as fertilisers, insecticides and other chemical products so essential to agriculture have been affected.

Many commodities have suffered tremendous price rises. One has only to instance the increased cost of producing milk. My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton said that a rise of 8p per gallon of milk was the figure which he felt to be necessary. The Chairman of the Milk Marketing Board said the other day that he thought a rise of 3p per gallon was in line with events. Since I have not seen the detailed figures which must be available to the Minister I hesitate to say what should be a reasonable award to the industry, but I must ask him to say whether the Government intend to review the situation and think in terms of a special price injection, in the same way as the Conservative Government acted in this respect in the autumn of 1970.

It is reasonable to ask the Minister what are the Government's intentions. This is probably the last occasion in the course of this Session of Parliament that we shall be able to ask what is to be done about the escalation of prices. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will say whether they intend to have a special review. We have seen Press reports that this may be so.

There is a crisis in the milk industry. We are told that there are threats of un- employment in the milk manufacturing industry. We know that firms involved in cheese and butter production have their problems. Over the past four years we have seen a tremendous escalation in British self-sufficiency in cheese and butter. It has increased from 14 to 22 per cent. in the case of butter. Those engaged in the production of butter and cheese now face the possibility of unemployment, and we want to know the Government's intentions.