asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he is aware that the figures available suggest the possibility of a supply of turkeys next December ten per cent to 20 per cent in excess of probable domestic demand; and whether he proposes to arrange for suitable export marketing machinery to avoid the danger of a catastrophic fall in the price realised by producers for turkeys produced for the Christmas market in 1965.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Turkey Supplies.
73.
It will be another few weeks before adequate figures are available to make a reasonably reliable estimate.
I do not share the Deputy's pessimism about the danger of a catastrophic price fall.
Will the Minister agree that, if it transpires there is an excess of ten to 20 per cent in the supply of turkeys over and above the domestic demand, there is grave danger of a catastrophic fall of prices for turkeys generally in the month of December? If that contingency is at all likely, would the Minister agree that it is eminently desirable that steps be taken now to provide effective marketing procedure in order to avoid that fall so that it will not operate effectively when December comes?
I have no indication that any such rise in output is likely this year.
I believe there will be ten to 20 per cent more turkeys available next December than the domestic market will be able to consume. In case that apprehension should prove to be correct, when the Minister's inquiries have been completed in three or four week's time, will he then put measures in hand to provide a marketing scheme to deal with the kind of situation such a surplus would bring?
The Deputy knows that the position last year was that there was some doubt as to whether we would have sufficient for the home market or not. Even if the rise the Deputy mentions were to take place, I think it would be absorbed reasonably satisfactorily on the home and export markets.
Does the Minister not realise that, if we get a ten per cent or 20 per cent surplus in a market which has to be conducted for the five weeks before Christmas, we are liable to get a catastrophic collapse in prices, once the domestic market fails to absorb the entire output? Last year the domestic market took up practically all the turkeys available.
We exported only 14,000.
Correct. There was virtually a shortage on the home market-certainly a supply only sufficient to meet current demand. Add to that ten per cent or 20 per cent in that very short marketing period, and will the Minister not agree the price is bound to fall to the level of the export market at least and could, in a very short marketing period with a very perishable article, fall very much more steeply, to the advantage of the middleman but to the catastrophic destruction of the producer? As the Minister is aware, that has happened before.
As I say, when the figures become available in a few weeks' time, we shall have a better idea of what the situation will be.
If necessary, the Minister will favourably consider some form of marketing machinery?
I will look at the position.
You cannot say you have not been warned.