asked the Minister for Agriculture if, because of the serious financial state of the Irish port and bacon industry which is now in a serious loss-making situation, he will make 60,000 tons of intervention grain consisting of 40,000 tons of barley and 20,000 tons of wheat available to feed compounders from 10 June 1986 at £100 per ton; if this intervention grain will be sold from stores in this country at less than that price; if intervention grain was sold in 1985 out of stores in this country at the low price of £97 per ton; as it would be of enormous benefit to the livestock industry generally as the ingredients mentioned are of a high energy type and if he will grant this request which would cheapen compound feedstuffs which would help to alleviate some of the problem of livestock farmers because of bad weather conditions and a scarcity of feed generally; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Pig Feedstuffs.
I should first of all explain the position about grain in intervention. Under EC regulations the selling price of grain from intervention on to the home market in June 1986 must be not less than £153.88 per tonne and I have no authority to make it available at a lower price.
It would be inappropriate for me to disclose information about prices paid in 1985 by successful bidders for barley exintervention intended for export to countries outside the Community. Following the exceptionally bad weather which prevailed during the summer and autumn of 1985, Ireland was authorised by the Council of Ministers as an exceptional measure to sell 125,000 tonnes of intervention wheat and barley at 75 per cent of the intervention price. The sales were made under the feed voucher scheme between February and May this year at prices ranging from £109.62 to £115.41 per tonne.
The current difficulties in the pig meat sector cannot be attributed entirely to the cost of cereal feedingstuffs. On the one hand there is weak market demand at home and abroad exacerbated by an oversupply of pigs and on the other the need to rationalise and modernise slaughterhouses and processing plants as well as to adopt more aggression in the market place. It is clearly in the interest of both the compounding industry and the pig meat industry to ensure that feedingstuffs for pigs are available at the most competitive prices to the user.