Dan Boyle
Ceist:205 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the minimum guarantee prices currently available to Irish farmers. [16931/03]
Written Answers. - Crop Prices.
Sugar beet is the only commodity where a minimum guarantee price is available to Irish farmers. The minimum price for sugar beet of standard quality in Ireland, for the production year 2002-03 as specified in Council Regulation (EC) 1260/2001, Commission Regulation (EC) 1129/2002 and Commission Regulation (EC) 1440/2002 is: – for ‘A' beet €48.62 per tonne; – for ‘B' beet €30.74 per tonne.
‘A' beet is beet which will provide for manufacture of the main national sugar quota (which was originally intended to satisfy national consumption needs) while ‘B' beet is beet which provides for manufacture of sugar additional to the main sugar quota and could be regarded as the exportable surplus.