asked the Taoiseach the value of fresh frozen food products in each of the past five years and if the percentage increase has (a) exceeded the rate of inflation and (b) exceeded the rate of increase in the value of Irish food exports.
Written Answers. - Frozen Food Imports.
286.
The information available from the import statistics does not, in all cases, permit frozen foods to be distinguished from fresh or otherwise preserved foods. The principal categories may, however, be distinguished and are given in the following table.
Imports of Frozen Food Products.
£000
|
Description |
1975 |
1976 |
1977 |
1978 |
1979 |
|
Meat* |
83 |
361 |
259 |
379 |
938 |
|
Fish |
278 |
271 |
289 |
677 |
1,478 |
|
Vegetables |
1,677 |
2,630 |
3,108 |
4,653 |
7,948 |
|
Fruit |
43 |
57 |
71 |
117 |
254 |
|
Ice Cream |
193 |
273 |
408 |
716 |
872 |
|
Total |
2,274 |
3,592 |
4,135 |
6,542 |
11,490 |
*Excluding frozen poultry and certain edible offals for which separate data are not available. Imports of all poultry (fresh, chilled or frozen) amounted to £0.0 million in 1975, £0.5 million in 1976, £1.5 million in 1977, £3.5 million in 1978 and £4.0 million in 1979.
Between 1975 and 1979 the consumer price index (all items) increased by 63.4 per cent while in the same period exports of all foods (fresh, frozen or preserved et cetera) rose by 112 per cent.