The Commons Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Committee has announced the launch of a Fairness in the Food Supply Chain inquiry – which will examine the resilience and vulnerabilities of the UK food sector.
The probe, due to start in the new year, follows the publication of the government’s annual food security report last week. It revealed 10% of the UK households were estimated to be ‘food insecure’ in 2023, the largest proportion since the measure was introduced in 2020.
The report also confirmed that the UK produced around 60% of the food it consumed in 2023 (62% for all food and 75% for food that can be grown in the UK) – representing a marginal rise on 2021.
However, it warned UK agricultural water availability was at risk from increased extreme weather events. While many businesses had shown resilience and recovery in response to price shocks driven by events such as the war in Ukraine, investment levels were not back to pre-2022 levels, it added.
Average total quarterly investment by food and drink manufacturing businesses increased by 5.7% in 2023 compared with 2022, but this was 21% lower than 2021 levels, the report revealed.
Given these pressures on the sector and wider societal challenges, Efra said its inquiry would probe a range of key issues affecting the sector, including the levels of support for domestic food production, access to affordable and healthy food, labour shortages in the supply chain, and food prices and household food insecurity.
“It is easy to take for granted that we enjoy a ready and plentiful supply of food in the UK,” said Efra chair Alistair Carmichael MP.
“The production of high-quality food is a domestic strength that we can all be thankful for. Even so, our food supplies – both homegrown and imported – are vulnerable to external factors and are not always as secure as we might imagine, as the events of recent years have proven.”
Efra was also concerned about the increasing number of households up and down the country which were “struggling to access high-quality, nutritious food at prices they can afford”, Carmichael added.
“Supermarkets have warned that the tax rises announced in the budget will put pressure on prices. We also continue to see warnings about the impact of labour shortages in the supply chain.”
The inquiry comes as the Labour government recently pledged further action on supply chain fairness, with new regulations over contractual relations – similar to this year’s dairy contract reform – expected across a host of additional food and farming categories next year.
The Efra Committee said its inquiry would look at how the government “can ensure greater fairness and transparency in supply chains and promote food security both at a national and a household level”.
It added the probe would refer to evidence gathered by the predecessor Efra Committee on topics ranging from the effectiveness of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to enforce the Groceries Supply Code of Practice and the potential merits of expanding the scope of GSCOP.
Other areas of consideration already covered by the previous committee include the potential benefits and risks of lowering the turnover threshold for which retailers are covered, the adequacy of reviews into contractual practices in agricultural sectors and the effectiveness of introduction of fair dealing powers under the Agriculture Act.
Efra would also examine the scope for collaboration between the new Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator and Groceries Code Adjudicator, it added.
The committee is also welcoming new or updated submissions on the above, by 24 January 2025.
The inquiry follows a tumultuous few months for food producers in the wake of budget changes to Inheritance Tax liabilities that led to a series of protests over the autumn.
The NFU today said farmers would take part in a ‘National Day of Unity’ on 25 January as part of its ongoing opposition to the changes, dubbed the ‘Family Farm Tax’.
“Farmers haven’t taken this destructive policy lying down and we won’t give up,” said NFU president Tom Bradshaw. “There is too much at risk – our families, our future, our heritage and the undermining of the very sector that produces a safe, secure supply of British food.”
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