Calls for the government to provide
better support to UK food producers have intensified recently as supermarkets
have been forced to ration sales of some fresh produce. Weatherrelated
disruption has caused supply shortages of vegetables from places including
Spain and North Africa.
Former Sainsbury’s chief executive
Justin King has partly blamed the government’s decision not to subsidise
producers’ spiking energy costs this winter under its plan to help businesses
affected by the cost of living crisis. The National Farmers’ Union has also
called on the government to “back British food production in order to secure a
homegrown supply of sustainable food or risk seeing more empty shelves in the
nation’s supermarkets”.
Food prices rises and produce
shortages have been an ongoing problem for the UK recently - affecting
everything from eggs to turkeys. As of January 2023, food price inflation was
at a nearly 50 year high of 16.7%.
Gaining an understanding of the UK’s
complex food supply chains can help explain why this is happening and also
provides some ideas about how to prevent such shortages in the future. Here are
three potential solutions based on current problems with UK food production,
supply and import practices.
1. Diversify sources of imported food
Although it’s one of the most food -dependent countries in the world, the UK produces over 50% of vegetables
consumed domestically, but only 16% of its fruit. Most of its fresh vegetables
come from domestic and European sources, but its fruit supply is spread across
the EU, Africa, the Americas and some domestic producers. Some of the main
countries used for these imports include Spain, the Netherlands, Morocco and Egypt.
After Brexit, this dependency has
become more expensive. This is because of new customs procedures and paperwork,
which has led to delays and disruptions at ports and borders. Fresh produce
with a short shelf life such as lettuce, tomatoes and citrus fruits are affected
most by these changes.
The UK could diversify its sources of
imported food to reduce reliance on particular regions or countries that may be
subject to bad weather or other disruptions. Promoting local food systems could
also reduce reliance on imported food by encouraging consumers to buy more seasonal
and locally grown produce.
2. Increase support for domestic food
production
Providing consumers with more local
options would require better support for UK farmers and producers. Boosting
domestic food production, particularly for crops that are currently being
imported, could involve providing more subsidies or tax breaks to encourage
farmers to grow more food. The government could also invest in research and
development to improve yields, and create more favourable regulatory conditions
for agriculture.
More immediate support is also
necessary. Any fresh produce that is grown in the UK requires greenhouses.
Significant increases in energy costs over the past year, following Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine, have added to the cost of production and contributed to
the food inflation. Some reports indicate that farmers renewing their energy
contracts this autumn faced cost increases of up to 400%.
The UK could also expand seasonal
worker programmes to allow more migrant workers to come and work on farms
during peak harvesting seasons. This could help alleviate labour shortages and
ensure that crops are picked in a timely manner, reducing the risk of food
waste and shortages.
3. Improve food supply infrastructure
and logistics
But while factors like weather, war
and worker shortages cause price rises and rationing, these issues also mask
serious underlying supply chain problems that affect the networks used to
transport goods from farm or factory to shop shelves.
Modern food supply chains are
efficiency driven, relying on the justintime delivery method. This means that,
rather than buying in more stock than needed 'just in case', retailers attempt
to predict precisely what consumers will need and when. This type of 'lean'
thinking saves on storage costs but leaves no margin of error if supply chain
resilience is tested - as is partly happening at the moment in the UK.
Indeed, just in time delivery is not
very effective in the face of a major shock such as a pandemic, extreme weather
conditions or changing geopolitical dynamics. Shoppers have experienced these
problems first hand during the Covid pandemic and after Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine affected commodity supply chains last year.
The UK’s food supply chains are also
vulnerable to disruptions due to their use of the Port of Dover for food
imports. It represents a significant bottleneck in the UK’s food distribution
network.
Compounding this bottleneck, UK
supermarkets tend to use large warehouses for storing and distributing produce
that aren’t always close enough to stores to respond quickly to changes in
demand or supply. This system cuts back on the cost of running lots of smaller
warehouses, but it is difficult to adjust it in reaction to any volatility,
uncertainty or complexity in the supply chains. The large warehouses are not
close enough to supermarkets to respond quickly when conditions change.
Investment in improving this
infrastructure and logistics would make it easier and more costeffective for
food to be transported from farms to supermarkets and other retailers. This
could involve improving port capacity, rail links and creating more efficient
distribution networks between warehouses and shops.
Summary
The problems with the UK food
production industry and its supply chain not only lead to disruptions and shortages,
but also food waste.
My research shows food producers’
operating costs are significantly higher across processing, storage and
distribution as a result of poor transportation and when buyers change
products. This, alongside machine maintenance and inefficiency issues, human
errors and product defects create food waste, as well as higher costs that
could be passed on to consumers.
The solutions above would help
supermarkets and consumers to reduce costs and manage shortages, but could also
address food waste by ensuring timely delivery of the products that people want
and need to buy.
Manoj Dora
Professor in Sustainable Production and Consumption
Anglia Ruskin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
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