The NFU has stressed the importance of food and energy security to the prime minister, as a difficult year comes to a close.
NFU president Minette Batters met with Rishi Sunak this week to emphasise the importance of him honouring the commitments he made during the leadership race.
She drew particular attention to the aim of establishing a food security target, underpinned by statutory duty to monitor domestic food production and to hold a UK-wide annual food security summit at No 10.
The meeting also covered the opportunities for British food and farming, particularly in the fruit & vegetable sector, if supply chain issues can be resolved and production costs stabilised.
The PM was “receptive and it’s clear that he is taking food and energy security seriously” said Batters.
“The prime minister made it clear today that he wants to provide an environment for British food and farming to thrive, and what farmers and growers need more than anything is certainty,” she added.
“This means providing continued support to farm businesses through the inflation and energy crisis, enabling fair contractual relationships in the supply chain, establishing a national food security target, and providing clarity and delivering effective policies such as the new Environmental Land Management schemes.”
As reported previously in The Grocer, it comes as British farmers had a particularly challenging year with weather issues, supply chain challenges and cost of production rises across seeing production fall across fresh food.
“British farmers and growers have so much to offer to the nation, providing high-quality, affordable, climate-friendly food alongside increasingly important renewable energy and a thriving countryside for us all to enjoy,” said Batters.
“But the past year has been a stark reminder of what we stand to lose if British food and farming is taken for granted, and why it needs to be a political priority.”
It follows new Defra secretary Thérèse Coffey’s dismissal of crises in the egg sector and calls for the government to intervene in struggling supply chains.
In her first appearance in front of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee earlier this month, Coffey told MPs she didn’t “think we are at the stage of doing market interventions directly when it comes to pricing”, despite mounting calls from industry to the contrary.
Coffey also stressed there was no “general shortage of eggs”, even though most supermarkets have resorted to rationing in recent weeks as production is scaled back.
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