Orders of the Day — Agriculture

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 November 1974.

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Photo of Mr Francis Pym Mr Francis Pym , Cambridgeshire 12:00, 25 November 1974

This is an old trade that we cannot cut off. I have asked what the effect will be. I am certain that, in view of the price of fodder, we would get a different result by importing cattle from Ireland if there had to be a 60 days' or 90 days' waiting period. I think that the whole House would welcome an announcement by the right hon. Gentleman that that was what he had decided to do. I hope that he will do that. It would be of real help.

I turn now to the pig sector, which I readily admit was in a most difficult situation last winter. In March the Government introduced a subsidy for pig producers which was to last until July. The object was to prevent a decline in the herd. Unfortunately, the market price slumped and slaughtering continued at exceptional rates. By May it was clear that pig production would decline by 200,000 tons by 1975. That was an estimate made by the Meat and Livestock Commission.

On 22nd May the right hon. Gentleman announced the extension of the subsidy, but by June, the next month, the total slaughter rate for the first half of the year, January to June, was nearly 50 per cent. up on the same period in 1973. In September the special subsidy was again extended, but the reduction in the herd persisted unabated.

I know that the Government made £30 million available, but, alas, much of the benefit was lost through the fall in the market, which was calamitous for producers. Indeed, they did not receive that £30 million. That was part of the trouble. In other words, the successive steps that were taken proved inadequate to safeguard future supplies for the consumer. That is what happened. In my view, that was due to the fact that the steps were successive. Taken all at once, I think that the outturn would have been different.

The House has heard the Minister, on his return from each round of negotiations in Europe—I fully acknowledge the energy and effort required to sit through them and to come back with a negotiation achieved—claim each round as either satisfactory or even a triumph. But each in turn has proved in the end to be inadequate and insufficient.