The supply chain and fairness for farmers must be at the top of todays food summit agenda, industry leaders have demanded.
Speaking ahead of the Downing Street UK Farm to Fork Summit, groups including Sustain, the Food Foundation and the Nature Friendly Farming Network have all called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to provide a solution to the current food crisis that supports producers as well as consumers.
Executive director of the Food Foundation Anna Taylor said that action to address food inflation, currently standing at 19 per cent, had left around nine million adults and four million children experiencing food insecurity.
People will have to get used to higher prices, Ms Taylor said. The Government has pledged to cut inflation which means that prices will not go down, but they will increase at a slower rate. Globally we have seen food prices falling but around three quarters of costs are incurred once the food leaves the farm... Also contracts are often locked in which means those prices are set at a higher level for a longer period.
For tomorrows conversation it is really important that the Government is talking to supermarkets about how we can accelerate the removal some of those legacy effects.
Vicki Hird head of Sustainable Farming at Sustain said what farmers want is actual fairness in the supply chain.
She said despite opposition from the retail sector, there must be an end to the, long-term, over complex, centralised system that led to complete dysfunction.
Ms Hird also pointed to a lack of information coming out of Defra regarding support for trade, highlighting work that has been long promised on dairy exports, help for the pig sector and support for horticulture.
Who is Defra listening to? she asked.
UK chair of Nature Friendly Farming Network Martin Lines said the Farm to Fork Summit must not just be a sticking plaster and that the Government could not be allowed to step away from its responsibilities to the sector.
The UK Food to Farming Summit is being held in Downing Street to discuss the problems facing all aspects of the sector as the country deals with the current cost of living crisis. Launching the event, the Prime Minister said
Supporting our farmers and food producers must, and always will be, at the heart of our plans to grow the economy and build a more prosperous country.
