Orders of the Day — Agriculture Bill [Lords]

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:46 pm on 23 March 1993.

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Photo of John Gummer John Gummer Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 4:46, 23 March 1993

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

Our farmers and our food industry want to be able to compete effectively in the European Community and elsewhere in the world. The Bill will help them to do so by removing present disadvantages and bringing the industry up to date.

When the milk marketing scheme was introduced 60 years ago, its very characteristics as a monopoly were hailed as the salvation of producers. Times have changed, however, and the scheme is now the farmer's gaoler not his saviour.

What was essentially a commodity market for whole milk, butter and Cheddar cheese is now a sophisticated consumer market. Who would have thought 60 years ago that nearly half the liquid milk sold would be skimmed or semi-skimmed? In just over a decade, consumption of these types of milk has gone from 1 per cent. of the England and Wales liquid market to 44 per cent. Who would have thought, too, that butter consumption would have fallen away dramatically, while consumption of cream, yoghurt and fromage frais was rising steeply? Indeed, who in this country would even have heard of fromage frais in 1933?

There have been other changes, too. Our home market now reaches over much of western Europe, which means that, if United Kingdom-based processors are to compete, they must supply what the consumer wants, or others will do so instead. Farmers know better than anyone that we cannot produce as much milk as we should like, or even as much as we can use. Therefore, restricted by quota, we simply have to put our milk to the most productive use. We cannot go on exporting bulk commodity products and getting low prices for them, and importing huge quantities of high-value processed products, giving those who export from other countries the benefit of our market, while we do not get the proper benefit of theirs. It is ridiculous that these low-value exports should have had a priority call on the nation's milk supply, but that is part and parcel of the present system.