Supermarket and supplier bosses have held crunch talks with environment secretary Emma Reynolds calling for a new approach to the government’s food strategy, The Grocer can reveal.
At a roundtable yesterday Reynolds, who took over as Defra secretary in Keir Starmer’s September reshuffle, and environment secretary Angela Eagle met with a raft of CEOs from the retail, manufacturing and foodservice sectors.
It’s understood the ministers recommitted to a strategy that would prioritise the growth of UK food production.
However, industry leaders complained that until now the food strategy, which launched at the end of 2024 and set out a raft of key aims in July last year, has been dominated by calls from NGOs for more regulation on health with little focus on growth.
Key demands at yesterday’s roundtable included calls for more support from government for UK farmers, to allow them to expand sustainable production in areas such as poultry farming and horticulture.
Sources told The Grocer Reynolds stressed that the government had a growth-first agenda, and was prepared to prioritise UK production in a bid to kickstart the strategy after its troubled start – which included the sacking in the reshuffle of the minister that had been spearheading it, Daniel Zeichner.
“There is enthusiasm for the food strategy but it needs to be better co-ordinated, better prioritised and also account for the burdens retailers and manufacturers are facing,” said a senior industry source.
“The secretary of state absolutely gets the issues around growth and is really keen to have that discussion, but we need to see that demonstrated in action, not just from Defra but from other government departments if they are serious about prioritising growth in the UK food sector.”
The source added: “If you look at all the publicity around the food strategy to date, it’s primarily been around the health agenda. It’s been around things like mandatory reporting.
“We want to see more of a focus on sustainable production alongside that health agenda.
“We need food production to be able to gear itself up to the investigations big retailers are facing from environmental investors and potentially from government requirements on sustainable reporting.”
In December the government announced a consultation on reforms to the planning system that will make it easier for farmers and growers to grow their businesses and secure approval for new agricultural buildings.
The source said: “This is the sort of action we need to see much more of. Poultry farming for example is being driven by better welfare standards – the farmers need more expert help to keep up with demand. How do we support those British farmers to be in a position that we can buy more produce from them?
“The key litmus test is whether the government can shift the focus on the food strategy onto this sort of support and away from placing more regulatory burdens on the industry.
“The government needs to be really careful about the regulatory regime. The more burdens, the more cost you put into the system, the less industry and resources there are to really boost UK food production.
“That includes everything from health, EPR through to DRS.”
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