Food industry leaders universally believe the government has failed to strengthen resilience in the past year, according to a damning survey by the IGD.
The report claims ministers needed to be more ambititious to protect UK food production and create more resilient supply chains, with no faith among company bosses in its recent policies to protect from future shocks.
Of those who took part, 100% of respondents said they do not believe government policy has strengthened food resilience over the past year.
In the IGD’s first resilience survey, business leaders were asked to identify and rank the top risks to the UK’s food system resilience.
Geopolitics was ranked as the highest risk to the industry, followed by climate change, water and agriculture.
More than 90% of industry leaders and academics said the risk to the UK food system has grown over the past year, with the tumultuous series of world events the primary cause.
Whilst geopolitics received the highest risk score, IGD argued that climate change is likely to pose the greatest long-term risk to the UK food system because of the way it compounds other pressures, including water scarcity, agricultural volatility, biodiversity loss and supply chain disruption.
“This year’s report shows the risks facing the food system are intensifying; building resilience has become a shared priority across all sectors in the food system and at a fast rate,” said Kathryn Reynolds, senior manager for resilience at IGD. “For food businesses, reacting to disruption is no longer enough. Organisations must anticipate change, invest in capability and build supply chains that can withstand shocks, adapt quickly and thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
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