Debate on the Address

My Lords, I apologise for intervening in the gap. Due to my usual incompetence, I did not get my name down in time for the debate. I have one point to make and it concerns milk production. I was delighted to hear the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, spend a great deal of time on, and talk with a great deal of sympathy about, agriculture because recently there has been tremendous reluctance in Defra to mention the word and it has concentrated instead on a lot of other features. We have had reference to significant trouble in the milk industry, with many people leaving the business and milk supplies dropping. Excellent speeches by the noble Lords, Lord Inglewood and Lord Plumb, put the matter in its proper, important context. The noble Lord, Lord Plumb, quoted his local figures. He has to pay 79p for a litre of milk, of which the farmer receives 17p. A multiplication factor of five should allow for a certain amount of profit in between, and obviously it does. I want the Minister to say whether it was right and proper for the Competition Commission to rule that Milk Marque could not be established because supermarkets would be faced with unfair competition, and so it was split into four. The supermarkets do an excellent job, but the one thing in which they are all united is that they want to keep the price at which they buy at the lowest possible level. However, farmers are not allowed to speak as a whole and that is grossly unfair. In Denmark, Germany and Holland, farmers form large organisations which are able to bargain fairly. Surely the same should apply in this country. With a current price of 17p for a litre of milk, you need to be a very efficient farmer not to lose money but you will certainly not make any. The Government must either explain why that is reasonable or do something about it. It is grossly unfair that farmers are not allowed to combine in this country when they can do so in Europe. There, they take advantage of the situation and it does not drive the price of milk to ridiculous heights but it does leave farmers with a chance to survive and make some profit. I should very much like the noble Baroness to deal with that point because, in my view, it is important.