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Written question asked by Alan Simpson (Labour) on Wednesday, 25 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 January 2006. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 9 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Seed Imports

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many lots of seeds for (a) maize and sweetcorn, (b) winter oilseed rape, (c) spring oilseed rape, (d) sugar beet, (e) fodder beet, (f) beetroot and (g) winter brassicas were imported into the UK in each of the last six years; and what the (i) weight and (ii) country of origin of the seeds was in each year.
Answer

Imports of seeds for sowing by country of despatch from 1999 to November 2005 are provided in the attached table.Note that oilseed rape seeds are not separated into winter and spring varieties. Also imports of fodder beet seed are not separated from salad beet seed. Information is only available on the quantity of seeds imported rather than the number of individual consignments.These statistics reflect levels of trade as recorded by traders. It is possible that some imports for consumption or processing have been inadvertently recorded as seed for sowing. They therefore need to be treated with a degree of caution.

UK imports of Seeds for 1999 to November 2005
Tonnes
Description Countries 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 January to November 2005
Maize Seed Irish Republic 692 26 36 14,923 19,822 14,064 12,447
France 1,676 1,607 5,521 3,899 3,120 2,587 5,788
Netherlands 1,480 248 1,634 1,306 1,883 1,454 1,817
Germany 1,967 1,156 1,020 2,315 1,270 868 731
Chile — — — 109 130 — 12
Spain — — — 107 — — —
Italy — — — — — 89 —
Others 14 18 10 14 44 43 85
Oil Seeds Germany 152 133 217 121,296 2,931 382 352
France 103 147 212 49,652 15,397 19,598 3,562
Australia — — 0 61,550 — 1 —
Denmark 102 11 13,179 20 22 0
Irish Republic 1 1 2,898 2,170 3,637 2,839
Poland — — — 2,291 1 — —
Netherlands 1 3 6 163 298 11 2
Others 0 45 73 503 21 30 261
Sugar Beet Seed Italy — — 38 — 127 243 311
Germany 134 101 119 168 67 10 8
France 222 176 32 9 18 59 65
Belgium 24 30 21 9 3 14 4
Others 15 22 0 23 3 26 11
Beet other than Sugar Beet Netherlands 4,584 5,567 6,648 2,480 0 0 0
Belgium 6,714 — 1,831 — — — —
Germany 3,882 — — — 2,224 120 70
France 35 2,862 1,265 17 33 3 3
Denmark 830 1 0 0 0 — —
Others 3 17 4 0 2 1 0
Salad beet seed and fodder beet root seed Netherlands — — — — 90 34 24
U.S.A. — — — — 2 1 34
Australia — — — — — — 3
Brassicas Seed New Zealand 0 — 20 13 36 57 85
U.S.A. 0 — 0 45 27 25 0
Others 3 1 1 2 2 2 0
Grand Total 22,633 12,172 18,713 276,970 49,741 43,385 28,515
Data prepared by Trade statistics, Food Chain Analysis 3, DEFRA 2005 data is subject to amendments Source: H M Revenue and Customs
(3) This was not recorded as a separate item until 2003

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
46866; 442 c1359-62W;442 c1359-62W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Imports Seeds Maize Sugar beet Oilseed rape
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk