The government’s new Food Strategy must give a “seat at the table” to wholesale, or risk ignoring the “unsung heroes” of the sector, ministers have been told.
The FWD’s new white paper, The Roadmap for Resilience in the UK Food Supply Chain, was presented to the minister for food security and rural affairs Daniel Zeichner last week.
In a one-to-one meeting, FWD CEO James Bielby urged the minister to ensure an “all systems approach” to the food supply chain, as set out in the paper.
The government must recognise the essential role of food and drink wholesalers in delivering healthy, affordable and sustainable food to every corner of the country, Bielby told the minister.
The document includes a series of recommendations to strengthen the supply chain and champion British produce, as well as guidance on public health.
“System wholesalers are often the unrecognised yet central part of the food supply chain, as policy tends to focus on producers and retailers at either end of the chain,” the report says.
“The Food Strategy must take a genuinely whole-system approach, with wholesale recognised as a strategic enabler of national objectives on health, access, sustainability and economic growth. That means ensuring the sector has a seat at the table in policy development, and that its contribution to national resilience – from pandemic response to food security – is properly understood and supported.”
Bielby said at the heart of the report was a recommendation to treat the food supply chain as “critical national infrastructure”, with wholesalers recognised as a strategic sector in food resilience planning.
He said the enormous pressures or recent years, ranging from Covid to rising energy prices, had seen wholesalers thrust into the frontline with businesses now operating in an increasingly uncertain world.
The FWD argues a resilient and reliable food supply chain is essential to ensuring the UK’s economic and food security.
Among 15 recommendations, the report also calls for the government to provide consistent UK-wide policy frameworks and exempt food and drink wholesalers from proposed business rate increases, which it claims would would severely threaten economic growth.
Bielby added: “Wholesalers are the vital link that connects growers, producers, and manufacturers with the schools, hospitals, restaurants, retailers and care homes that feed the nation every day. Our members operate at the heart of the supply chain, ensuring food reaches every corner of the country reliably, efficiently, and safely.
“Our call is for recognition of wholesale as a strategic part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.”
“FWD looks forward to working with the government over the months and years ahead to deliver a food system fit for the future.”
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