House of Commons Hansard Debates for 3 Nov 1998 (pt 33)

10.9 pm

Mr. David Heath (Somerton and Frome): I thank the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this brief debate. I shall try to express some of the real desperation that is felt by many members of the farming community in the area of Somerset that I represent. One such farmer came up to me in Kingsbury Episcopi last Saturday, as the rains came down and the floodwaters came up, to tell me about the woes of many farms in his area. A farmer from Nunney approached me during my village tour to show me the slip from Frome market, which revealed that he had gained 18p net per calf. The pig farmers in Wanstrow and Truddoxhill tell me that they are losing many pounds on every weaner that they take to market.

It is unheard of in my experience and in that of many farmers to see every farming sector down at the same time, but that is the situation at present. It is often said that farmers are prone to crying wolf, but this time it is not a false alarm: our farmers are in desperate straits. That is backed up by the statistics. A recent survey in the south-west found that farm profits in the region are down by 79 per cent. on average. That compares with an average of 49 per cent. throughout the country. An even

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more alarming study conducted by the university of Exeter revealed that the average net farming income for lowland livestock farmers in the south-west will be £100 this financial year--we are returning to the days of Thomas Hardy with that sort of figure.

I assure the Minister that I do not think that the crisis in agriculture began on 2 May last year. There has been an on-going problem with which some Ministers have struggled manfully. They have done some of the right things, but the farming community and I would like to see more action on behalf of the farmers. First, the Government must recognise that the crisis exists not just in the upland areas but for lowland farmers as well. There is much concentration, for obvious reasons, on the upland farms and the difficulties that rural communities in those areas face. The lowland livestock farms of Somerset and the levels are not great ranches, but small, often tenant farms. As the hon. Gentleman said, those farmers are really suffering at present.

Secondly, I believe that a basket of short-term measures could be applied at this stage. I hope that the new Minister of Agriculture will examine some of those options. As the hon. Gentleman said, those short-term measures include agrimonetary compensation, which could be applied to the lowland, as well as the upland farms. The retention of the calf scheme beyond November would be not only a good signal but a stimulus to the beef industry to believe that better times may be ahead. The rendering industry is absolutely destitute at present. There is no rendering industry, and that is causing enormous problems for many farmers.

We must ensure that there is fair competition. The hon. Gentleman was absolutely correct in his comments in that regard. I hope that current moves will be successful in ending the beef ban, and I congratulate those Ministers who conducted the negotiations. However, we must ensure that there is fair competition with imports and that we are competing on level ground in terms of animal welfare and the quality of food imports.

We need to get to grips with the supermarkets and the profits that they continue to make while farming in this country is going down the drain. We must ask whether those profits are acceptable. We also need to examine interest rates, which are having a disastrous effect on all manufacturing industry--and farming is no exception. Some of us would argue in favour of a particular route out of the impasse, but that problem must be addressed on a national basis.

We can also do better in marketing United Kingdom produce. The United Kingdom generates extremely good farm produce. As for the south-west and particularly Somerset, I believe that we have some of the most wholesome and high-quality produce when compared with the produce of anywhere else that anyone cares to name. Yet I do not believe that we are marketing our produce as effectively as we could either in this country or abroad. More emphasis needs to be put on marketing.

I hope that the Minister will not talk, as colleagues have done, about fundamental restructuring of the industry. Of course there are pressures on the industry and of course there will be fall-out from that. However, when we talk about restructuring and "increased efficiency", we may be talking about the loss of the traditional family farm and the forcing of many smaller and medium-sized enterprises into agri-business, into the large conglomerates that own

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a great deal of land but employ very few people. We may be losing the high standard of animal welfare which is inherent in many good family farms, where people care about the animals that they are looking after, and encouraging the growth of mono-culture, which is something that most of would prefer not to see.

Let us not talk about restructuring and efficiency, save the efficiency that comes from having a vibrant agricultural industry that employs local people, looks after animals well and provides for the best produce that we can produce.

It was a great disappointment to us in Somerset when the former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was not able to come to Somerset to the Royal Bath and West show. It was the first time for a very long time that Ministers had not been present at the show. That is something that I hope will be put right by the Ministry this year. I invite the Minister, his right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and any of his colleagues to come to Somerset to see for themselves the position in which we find our industry and perhaps learn from the experiences of so many of my constituents, who are finding life extremely difficult and are looking for help.

10.16 pm

Mr. Lawrence Cunliffe (Leigh): I shall briefly and rapidly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle). He represents a constituency that hosts exclusively the Royal Lancashire show each year, which is famous and historical. He presented his case profoundly and sincerely, and offered an excellent defence of the interests of British farmers in the north-west and throughout the United Kingdom. It was commendable and I congratulate him on it.

I shall speak exclusively about the area that I represent. Perhaps one would not think that Leigh and Wigan have rural areas where there are pig farmers, who almost exclusively are running small businesses. They are facing unfair competition. I say from my experience in Europe--tomorrow I am having discussions in Paris with the Agricultural Committee of the Council of Europe--that British pig food is quality production. It is subject to quality control and high standards, including those of animal welfare. We have higher standards than any of our continental competitors.

I feel for our farmers. We are talking of losses of about £30 to £35 on every pig that is reared, fed and sold. Many farmers face the stark scenario of bankruptcy. I know that the Government have taken commendable initiatives on which we have congratulated them but we are faced with unfair competition that hurts British producers. That unfair competition takes the form of inferior quality products. If our farmers maintain their standards they will face, obviously, a decline in their income. They cannot understand why that should happen.

Butchers in my constituency are also concerned--this is the supermarket argument. Everybody knows that the price of British beef or imported beef is propped up by the artificial prices and margins of other goods in the supermarket. That needs investigation by Committees of the House.

I am astonished--I would not say that I was shocked--that no Conservative Members are present to discuss British farming interests. I cannot believe that they are so

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indifferent to those interests after their party's tremendous failure at the general election. Their lack of commitment to farming is revealed by their absence this evening, and it is shameful.

I conclude with a topical phrase--buy British. I say to absent Conservative Members that that is the British way. At their party conference they tried to use farming to demonstrate to the country that they are back on the agenda.

10.20 pm

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Elliot Morley): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) on the powerful and knowledgeable way in which he made his case. He spoke in great detail about the effects of the recession in agriculture on his local farmers. I listened carefully to his points and I shall respond to them in a moment.

I pay tribute also to the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath), who made a similar case about the effects in Somerset and my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Mr. Cunliffe), who made a good case about the pig industry. I am sympathetic to that case as I come from north Lincolnshire, which is a major pig-producing area.

I acknowledge that apart from the hon. Members whom I have already mentioned, the debate is attended by my hon. Friends the Members for Stroud (Mr. Drew), for Birmingham, Northfield (Mr. Burden), for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) and for Wythenshawe and Sale, East (Mr. Goggins), but not a single Conservative Member. When the Liberal Democrats held a debate last Monday, Conservative attendance was also very poor. That demonstrates who has farmers' interests and those of the rural economy at heart.

I recognise that most sectors of farming, but particularly the livestock sector, are having a difficult time. The ministerial team has been listening carefully to representations by organisations such as the Tenant Farmers Association, which my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley mentioned, and many individual farmers throughout the country.

I am glad that my hon. Friend acknowledged what the Government have already done to alleviate the pressures on farming. Last winter, we provided an extra £85 million of support for the beef and sheep industries. We also absorbed £35 million of start-up charges for the cattle traceability scheme, which has helped the industry a great deal.

I listened to my hon. Friend's points about the calf processing aid scheme. My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is considering that and other measures. That scheme is a two-edged sword and people in the industry have argued for its end. It must end at some point and although we concede that that will cause welfare problems, the scheme itself has caused such problems.

I agree that one of the most important actions that we can take to restore confidence to the livestock sector is to get the ban on British beef lifted. We are in the final stages of achieving that. A tremendous amount of work has been done by my right hon. Friend the Minister and

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his predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham). That will probably be discussed at the next Agriculture Council in November. There is no doubt that lifting the ban will send the right signals to the industry.

It is worth mentioning that one of the reasons why the livestock sector is facing such difficulties is that it faces the on-costs of specified offal removal. We must have such regulations and the extra costs because of the catastrophe of BSE, which has hit not only the beef industry but the whole livestock sector. The previous Administration made some terrible mistakes in dealing with BSE, and we are still feeling the reverberations and repercussions.

My hon. Friend the Member for Chorley made some good points about what can be done to help the livestock sector. He mentioned the promotion of the high standards of British meat production. We accept his case and, indeed, recently held a catering seminar chaired by Lord Donoughue. Its aim was to encourage the catering industry, which is a major sector of the economy, to use more British products. We argue that case not simply because we are British, although I was moved by my hon. Friend's patriotism.

The fact that a product is British is not enough. We argue for the use of British products on the basis of quality and welfare and hygiene standards. As my hon. Friend rightly said, our products conform to the highest standards in the world, and that fact needs to be borne in mind in the interests of fair and open competition. I shall say a little more about that in a moment.

My hon. Friend the Member for Leigh mentioned the pig industry. I understand what he said as I represent an area that is one of the centres of the British pig industry. Our British pig producers have put a great deal of effort and a great many resources into raising welfare standards and ending the sow stall and tether systems. In addition, pigs in this country are not fed meat and bone meal, as they often are on the continent.