To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what food surpluses exist within the European Union; what the costs were of storing and handling UK intervention products in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available; what the costs were of storing and handling intervention products in the EU; and how much the UK paid towards that cost. (116501)

At the end of the 2006 public storage financial year (30 September 2006), EU public stocks were 13,476,812 tonnes of cereal, rice, sugar and milk products and 3,529,002 hectolitres of alcohol/wine.

The individual quantities of these products are listed in the table.

Expenditure for intervention operations in the UK during the budget year 2006 was £1,380,911.70.

Receipts of £1,892,043.40 were gained from the sale of intervention products leading to a net gain of £511,131.70.

Expenditure for intervention operations during the budget year 2006 for the EU was €1053.5 million.

Receipts of €452.6 million were gained from sales of intervention products leading to an overall total expenditure of €600.9 million.

These figures are provisional and take into account aid, storage, sales and depreciation.

A figure for how much the UK contributes towards these specific costs is not available as the UK contributes to the EU budget as a whole rather than to individual components of it.

At the end of the 2006 public storage financial year (30 September 2006), EU public stocks were as follows: