The UK is currently “sleepwalking” into a food supply crisis unless the government steps in to help farmers, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned.
The NFU said that the soaring price of fuel, fertiliser and feed were putting farmers under severe pressure, despite the government saying that the UK has a “highly resilient food supply chain.”
Yields of tomatoes and other crops will likely slump to record lows this year, with ongoing supply problems already seen with eggs last month.
Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning
Some supermarkets are rationing egg sales after farmers cut back or halted production because of rising costs – a situation made worse by the Avian flu outbreak.
However, the NFU warned that food producers in other areas were now facing difficulties.
Beef farmers are now considering reducing the number of cows they breed, as milk prices are likely to fall below the cost of production.
Additionally, the NFU said production of crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and pears is likely to hit its lowest level this year since records began in 1985.
Rising costs were to blame, with fertiliser prices for farmers more than tripling since 2019 and the cost of feed and diesel up by 75%.
“This is about government prioritising food security, and if they fail to do so we will continue to see greater contradiction in our production, a reliance on more imports, and availability is just not going to be there,” NFU president, Minette Batters said.
She added that British food was “under threat” with the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies “in trouble,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We are self-sufficient in eggs – it’s been a massive success story – and we now have 320 million less eggs for the same period this year than last year,” Batters said.
Director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Andrew Opie, said that retailers were used to managing pressures across their supply chains.
“Supermarkets source, and will continue to source, the vast majority of their food from the UK and know they need to pay a sustainable price to farmers,” he said, although they are facing additional costs,” Opie added.
The news comes as international celebrities have united through an open letter calling on world leaders at the COP27 climate conference to end factory farming and transform our global food system.
