12.
asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the level of milk production based on the latest available figures and as compared with a year previously.
The latest estimate is that in 1974–75 the total United Kingdom sales of milk through marketing schemes were 2,891 million gallons. This compares with a figure for 1973–74 of 2·929 million gallons.
Will the Minister go a little further than he did in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton) and say exactly how he intends to increase milk production so as to make certain that there is sufficient for the production of butter and cheese?
I confirm that those are the Government's objectives. Our White Paper was published only last month. We are at present discussing with the industry how best to achieve its objectives.
Will my hon. Friend confirm that at the commanding heights of the European food economy we shall find not only butter and beef mountains but a dried milk mountain? Successive Governments have followed a cheap food policy whereby the farmer was subsidised and given deficiency payments. Does my hon. Friend not feel that that represents a better deal for the British consumer than the dear food policy of the Common Market?
I agree that in or out of the Community we wish to secure a balance between supply and demand. Long before we entered the Community this and previous Governments practised support buying. We bought potatoes in the past and took them into intervention—on some occasions on a substantial scale.
Will the Minister state his intentions regarding milk production? Cheese production will end earlier this year than for many years past. Creamery equipment will be left standing. Capital which has been invested will be useless. How will the Minister increase the total production of milk this year?
It is a little rich that the hon. Gentleman, whose Government left the milk industry in such a sorry state, should criticise the Government for not yet having taken action on a White Paper which was published last month and which followed three increases in the price of milk.