asked the Minister of Food why, in the present circumstances, food packers are encouraged to export meat products packed in tins to foreign countries such as the Argentine and are granted additional supplies in order to enable them to meet the demand.

It is our considered policy to encourage exports of processed foods of all kinds, which earn many times their raw material value in dollars and other foreign currencies and so enable us to buy much greater quantities of basic foods. We are at present allocating only a very small amount of meat for export products, and we do not want to destroy the markets which exporters have worked so hard to build up. None is going to the Argentine, and I would, in all seriousness, advise the hon. Member and the House not to be misled by recent grossly misleading Press stories on this and relevant matters of our meat supplies.