UK should ‘cherish’ turnips, suggests Thérèse Coffey, as food shortages could last a month – as it happened

SNP MP Amy Callaghan challenges the government on claims that food shortages are a Europe-wide problem.

Callaghan asks Thérèse Coffey:

There are no reported shortages of food in France, Germany and other European net-food importers.

Isn’t this a problem created by inward-looking little England, and this British government?

Coffey replies “no it’s not”.

Labour MP Luke Pollard says that in 2023, Britain has food rotting in the fields, children going hungry, and food rationing in the supermarkets. He says the latter problem isn’t due to panic-buying – although “a lettuce lasts longer than the last prime minister”.

Pollard says Coffey must show more leadership and grip.

Q: What is her plan to properly address the food shortages, which is a serious issue for families up and down the country?

Coffey agrees that this is a serious issue, but accuses Pollard of a lack of knowledge and bandwagon-jumping.

There are no crops in the fields to pick now, she says, that’s why the UK relies on imports.

Labour MP Barry Sherman warns Coffey that Britain faces “a national emergency”, in which lower-income families are struggling to afford basic food stuffs such as eggs and milk.

Coffey says that competition between supermarkets has kept food prices down, but this has led to farmers signing fixed price contracts with supermarket chains (which can be uneconomical as inflation rises).

People should be careful not to create public anxiety about food shortages, suggests Thérèse Coffey.

Asked about the danger that panic buying leads to food waste, the DEFRA secretary of state says people should reflect on the impact of warnings of shortages.

Before Christmas, one industry person said there would be a shortage of free-range turkeys, Coffey tells MPs. Consumers heard this, responded, and the UK ended up with a glut and prices fell.

People do need to be careful when we’re talking about the resilience of the food supply chain.

Coffey reiterates that the problem with food supplies is temporary, and will be fixed in two to four weeks.

Q: Will the government reclassify what counts as an ‘energy intensive’ industry, to provide more support for agriculture?

Thérèse Coffey replies that her department will continue to make the case for support for the sector, citing industrial glasshouses as an emerging industry that could be helped.

But, she points out that wholesale gas price have fallen from their highs last year, which should lead to lower energy bills.

Thérèse Coffey, Defra secretary of state, has predicted that the UK’s fruit and vegetable shortages could last another two to four weeks.

Responding to the urgent question in parliament, Coffey says UK supermarkets have restricted supplies to ensure that “everyone still has access to enough of the different fruit and vegetables” available.

And she predicts that the shortages could last at least a fortnight, and possibly up to a month, saying:

I’m led to believe by my officials, after discussion with industry and retailers, we anticipate this situation will last about another two to four weeks.

It’s important that we try and make sure we get different sourcing options, and that’s why the department has already been in discussion with retailers, and why there will be further discussions led by ministers as well.

Coffey continues to blame unseasonal weather overseas for the shortages, saying “even if we can’t control the weather”, it is important to ensure supplies are not frustrated in the way they have been by “these unusual weather incidents”.

Conservative MP Desmond Swayne jokes that if he’d known that voting for Brexit would cause frost in Morocco, he could have made a different decision.

[reminder, former Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King warned this morning that UK farming had been significantly disrupted by the exit from the European Union].

Thérèse Coffey, Defra Secretary of State, is now answering an urgent question on the UK’s food shortages.

Coffey tells MPs that the UK has a “highly resilient food supply chain”, as demonstrated in Covid-19, and well equipt to handle disruption.

She says seasonal weather problems in Spain and North Africa have hampered production and harvest, leading to the shortages of a “small number” of fruit and vegetables items.

But, she says, the industry shuold be able to mitigage supply problems though alternative sources.

Coffey says Ireland and other parts of Europe are facing very similar supply issues too, adding:

I wish to reiterate that food security does remain resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigage supply problems through alternative sourcing options.

Coffey reiterates that farming minister Mark Spencer will meet with retailers next week, to discuss their contractual models, plans to return to normal supplies, and their contengency plans to deal with supply chain problems.

Farmers and growers around the world have faced “significant pressures” due to the Ukraine war and avian flu, and the energy price shock, Coffey continues.

Shadow Defra secretary of state, Jim McMahon MP, is not impressed, saying the minister’s statement is “completely detatched” from the reality being faced on the ground.

Responding to Coffey, he says there is public concern about the availability of food, and dismisses the suggestion that the problem is all down “exernal forces “.

McMahon says he met farmers in Lancashire who are trying to recover from avian flu, who told him there isn’t any DEFRA scheme to help them restart.

There have been a billion fewer eggs on the shelves in the last year than before the pandemic, McMahon says, adding:

We literally had Pancake Day this week, and you couldn’t buy eggs to make your pancakes.

“Indifference and dithering” by government is threatening food security, McMahon warns, who also pointed out that food security is an issue of national security.

23 Feb 202305.36 EST

Government urged to hold COBRA meeting on food shortages

Helena Horton

The government has been urged to hold a COBRA meeting to address food shortages, as it emerged the farming minister is not meeting supermarkets until next week (see earlier post).

When asked in parliament today how she is responding to empty shelves in supermarkets, environment secretary Therese Coffey said:

“Defra is working very closely with the industry to understand the issues with the supply chain, there have been particular issues in Spain and North Africa before Christmas and shortly after, and indeed officials are already working with food retailers and the minister will be meeting them early next week specifically to talk through certain actions for supermarkets.”

MPs have said this is not good enough. Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson Christine Jardine said:

“People are rightly alarmed about the chronic shortage of fruit and vegetables in our shops, but it seems the government has no urgent plan to fix it.

“This government has created chaos in the economy, an NHS on its knees, now they’re responsible for worsening food shortages through their failure to back British farming.

“We need an urgent COBRA meeting, together with food experts, supermarkets and farmers, to hammer out an urgent solution to this crisis.

“Ministers cannot just sit on their hands while food supply chains across the country grind to a halt.”

One in four UK firms plan to hike their prices next month, as they continue to pass on rising costs to consumers.

The Office for National Statistics’s latest realtime data found that a quarter of trading businesses expect to raise the prices of goods or services they sell in March 2023.

Energy prices remain the top reason these businesses are considering doing so, with 35% reporting this, the ONS says.

That may concern Bank of England policymakers, and chimes with Catherine Mann’s warning this morning about inflationary pressures building.

The ONS also found that last month, 29% of trading businesses reported lower turnover compared with December 2022, while only 16% reported that their turnover was higher.

Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, had told parliament that officials in her department are working with food retailers on the issue of shortages.

Taking oral questions from MPs this morning, Coffey says she is aware that many MPs are concerned by the reports about the availability of food products this week.

DEFRA is “working closely with the industry” to understand the issues with the supply chain, she says.

Coffey points to the weather, citing the “particular issue in Spain and North Africa” before and after Christmas.

The farming minister [Mark Spencer] will hold a meeting very early next week, to talk about the situation facing supermarkets, she adds.

Coffey also points out that the UK normally imports 90 to 95% of food at this time of year, such as tomatoes – one of the products being rationed at major supermarkets.

My colleague Helena Horton has more details from the session:

Newsflash: A Bank of England policymaker is warning that more interest rate increases are needed to tackle inflation.

Catherine Mann, one of the more hawkish members of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, says she believes that “more tightening is needed”, and cautions that “a pivot” on monetary policy is not imminent.

In a speech to Resolution Foundation this morning, Mann is arguing that financial conditions that are now looser than will be needed to prevent inflation becoming embedded in wages and prices.

Mann says she is worried that this could lead to “extended persistence of inflation into this year and the next.”

Mann is one of the seven MPC policymakers who voted to raise UK interest rates to 4% this month, from 3.5% (the other two voted for no change).

In December, Manne was a lone voice calling for a 75 basis point increase, when the MPC also lifted rates by half a percent, from 3% to 3.5%.

Today, Mann explains that failing to tackle the cost of living crisis now will mean inflation will remain higher for longer.

We have an inflation remit, and we will achieve it one way or another.

Failing to do enough now risks the worst of both worlds – the higher inflation and lower activity of the ‘purple’ regime – as monetary policy will have to stay tighter for longer to ensure that inflation returns sustainably back to the 2% target.

The MPC meets to set interest rates next month, when the money markets anticipate a quarter-point rate rise, to 4.25%.

23 Feb 202304.55 EST

Analyst: Food shortages due to 'abject policy failure'

Sarah Butler

The UK food system has been hindered by “abject policy failure and inept policy implementation” by the government, according to one leading retail analyst.

Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, writes that shortages of salad in UK supermarkets come after Defra did “pretty much nothing” to help growers when costs for British glasshouses producing tomatoes, cucumbers and other delicate crops surged in the light of the war in Ukraine.

As explained earlier, ex-Sainsbury’s chief Justin King also warned that domestic production had been hit by the lack of help on energy costs.

Black said that problems with pork and egg production have also been allowed to gather pace, as the “advisory context” in which Defra operates is “not up to scratch”.

In a note published today, Black writes:

“The treatment of the food sector is not acceptable, it is time for necessary change... big change,”

He argues that the “security shots across the bows” of the Ukraine war and Avian Influenza “have not been recognised by a complacent and incapable Defra.”