The food trade association, which represents processing, manufacturing and trading companies, has told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Food and Drink that the UK Government must take food supply more seriously.
The PTF presented its submission to the cross-party group’s chair Mike Reader MP, noting that while the UK food and drink supply chain has done an ‘exemplary’ job, the world is facing ‘unusual pressures’ due to geopolitical conflicts and climate change.
“We hear every day from our members across the UK that along with global conflicts, factors such as greatly inflated raw material and transport and energy prices in 2022-2024 are hitting consumers and businesses,” said PFT director general Rod Addy.
“These external shocks have challenged many long-standing assumptions about the inherent resilience of our supply chain models.”
In the submission, Addy underscores the key issues that the Government needs to address, including the threat of cyber-attacks, climate change impacts, rising input costs, weak supporting infrastructure, and labour and skills shortages.
“There are a number of real and current threats that must be addressed to strengthen UK food resilience,” Addy writes in the submission.
“They include the lack of prioritisation of UK food production in government policy and decision-making.
“With the threat of a national power outage, over-reliance on critical raw materials, over-dependence on a few big retailers for household food supply, disruption to the Panama Canal – a major food supply artery and another pandemic we really do need to see action from the Government now.”
The submission calls for a strategy to be pulled together in a timely manner, with appropriate action timelines and in cooperation with the food industry.
“The Provision Trade Federation’s submission shines a spotlight on some of the real challenges facing the UK’s food supply chain,” Reader said.
“Global instability, climate impacts, rising costs and skills shortages are all complex issues that require coordinated thinking and action. The Food and Drink APPG welcomes this input by the PTF and looks forward to working with industry and government to raise these concerns and help shape practical, long-term solutions that strengthen the UK’s food resilience.”
The PFT represents sectors accounting for 20% of UK household food expenditure and 130,000 UK jobs.
The Food and Drink APPG role in Parliament is to debate the policy priorities and issues related to the UK’s food and drink sector. The group has an aim to promote dialogue and discussion between industry and politicians through a series of policy roundtables, events and site visits.
This follows a similar call to the Government from fellow trades body Food and Drink Federation (FDF) to build resilience in the food sector.
