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To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all consumers have access to a balanced, healthy and affordable diet given the increases in the price of fruit and vegetables.
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that all consumers have access to a balanced, healthy and affordable diet given the increases in the price of fruit and vegetables.
The Government Food Strategy sets out a plan to transform our food system to ensure it is fit for the future.
We want to see a sustainable food system, from farm to fork and catch to plate, seizing on the opportunities before us, levelling up every part of the country and ensuring that everyone has access to nutritious and healthier food.
A healthy diet is a key component of good health and the Government advises people to follow the Eatwell Guide. Encouraging more people to follow the Eatwell Guide will have a substantial benefit on health as well as the environment.
To protect the most vulnerable from the worst of cost-of-living pressures, the Chancellor recently announced a package of targeted support worth £26 billion, which includes continued support for rising energy bills.
For 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment.
The Government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty and supporting people on lower incomes. More than 8 million families on means-tested benefits received a payment of up to £650 in 2022, made in two lump sums. This includes all families entitled to a payment of: Universal Credit, Income-based Jobseekers Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Pension Credit.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what delays they expect to the import of fresh salad products from the EU from 1 January 2021; and what contingency arrangements they have put in place to keep any such delays to the minimum.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what delays they expect to the import of fresh salad products from the EU from 1 January 2021; and what contingency arrangements they have put in place to keep any such delays to the minimum.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain based on strong domestic production and supply from a diverse range of sources. The availability of certain fresh seasonal produce, such a salad products imported from the EU may be temporarily impacted by reduced border flow rates but there will not be an overall shortage of food in the UK. Many such products are short shelf-life and imported on a just-in-time basis, and increased storage capacity would not effectively mitigate this risk.
The UK Government has published on Gov.uk planning assumptions on border flows for imported goods at the end of the transition period.
To support the smooth flow of food goods across the border from January 2021 onwards, we have put in place traffic management mitigations such as Operation Brock, published the Border Operating Model which prioritises border flow in the early months of 2021, and worked with ports to provide additional inland sites for customs checks. The Government is carrying out ongoing work to help businesses and traders get ready for the 1 January including potential border disruption, this includes extensive engagement with agri-food supply chain stakeholders.
Changes to consumer food prices depend on several factors including agri-food import prices and currency exchange rates and energy prices. Many food sub-sectors are accustomed to short-term fluctuations in supply chain costs, and this does not necessarily translate into consumer price rises.
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they expect to see price increases in salad goods imported from the EU from 1 January 2021; and, if so, how much they expect the rise in such prices to be.
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they expect to see price increases in salad goods imported from the EU from 1 January 2021; and, if so, how much they expect the rise in such prices to be.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain based on strong domestic production and supply from a diverse range of sources. The availability of certain fresh seasonal produce, such a salad products imported from the EU may be temporarily impacted by reduced border flow rates but there will not be an overall shortage of food in the UK. Many such products are short shelf-life and imported on a just-in-time basis, and increased storage capacity would not effectively mitigate this risk.
The UK Government has published on Gov.uk planning assumptions on border flows for imported goods at the end of the transition period.
To support the smooth flow of food goods across the border from January 2021 onwards, we have put in place traffic management mitigations such as Operation Brock, published the Border Operating Model which prioritises border flow in the early months of 2021, and worked with ports to provide additional inland sites for customs checks. The Government is carrying out ongoing work to help businesses and traders get ready for the 1 January including potential border disruption, this includes extensive engagement with agri-food supply chain stakeholders.
Changes to consumer food prices depend on several factors including agri-food import prices and currency exchange rates and energy prices. Many food sub-sectors are accustomed to short-term fluctuations in supply chain costs, and this does not necessarily translate into consumer price rises.
My Lords, the Government seem to be relying on an army of furloughed staff to come forward to pick the UK harvest this year, but the furlough scheme is currently available only until the end of June. What will happen when those staff go back to their original jobs? How can he be confident that we will have enough pickers now and in the long term? Will there be enough volunteers and, if not, what is the plan B?
My Lords, the Government seem to be relying on an army of furloughed staff to come forward to pick the UK harvest this year, but the furlough scheme is currently available only until the end of June. What will happen when those staff go back to their original jobs? How can he be confident that we will have enough pickers now and in the long term? Will there be enough volunteers and, if not, what is the plan B?
The Pick for Britain website and all that we are doing there is designed precisely to ensure that the point of the noble Baroness’s last question does not take place. We are clear that we want more people to come forward, particularly in their local areas; we think that students will have an important role to play. We are asking growers to put their vacancies on the website, so that there is a much greater range of opportunities. We will certainly work to ensure that those who continue to be furloughed—from
what I am hearing, there will be waiters, chefs, hotel staff, students and landscape workers—are able to make a major contribution to this harvest.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the tonnage of UK fruit and vegetables that were not harvested and left in the fields as a result of a shortage of seasonal workers.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the tonnage of UK fruit and vegetables that were not harvested and left in the fields as a result of a shortage of seasonal workers.
Defra produces annual estimates of horticultural crop production. These estimates include tonnage, value and imports/exports which allow the Government to monitor productivity and competitiveness within the industry including supply and self-sufficiency. No estimates are made for the tonnage of crops left unharvested for any reason. As a result, no data is available to answer this question.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is monitoring the price of food supplies, particularly fruit and vegetables.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is monitoring the price of food supplies, particularly fruit and vegetables.
Commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices have been observed to be the most important drivers of retail food price inflation. Implicit in commodity prices are short term weather conditions and longer term climatic changes.
We monitor food prices using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). Food prices rose by 0.2 per cent in the month to January 2017. Year on year, food prices have continued to fall with an annual rate of inflation of -0.5 per cent in the year to January 2017, according to the most recent official figures released on 14th February 2017.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages account for around ten per cent of the overall CPI, of which vegetables account for 1.3 per cent and fruit 0.9 per cent. The recent salad vegetable shortages caused by severe weather in southern Europe affected a relatively small number of items. This event is unlikely to have a significant impact on food prices overall.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent price increases in fruit and vegetables, in the light of shortages brought about as a result of climatic conditions.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recent price increases in fruit and vegetables, in the light of shortages brought about as a result of climatic conditions.
Commodity prices, exchange rates and oil prices have been observed to be the most important drivers of retail food price inflation. Implicit in commodity prices are short term weather conditions and longer term climatic changes.
We monitor food prices using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). Food prices rose by 0.2 per cent in the month to January 2017. Year on year, food prices have continued to fall with an annual rate of inflation of -0.5 per cent in the year to January 2017, according to the most recent official figures released on 14th February 2017.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages account for around ten per cent of the overall CPI, of which vegetables account for 1.3 per cent and fruit 0.9 per cent. The recent salad vegetable shortages caused by severe weather in southern Europe affected a relatively small number of items. This event is unlikely to have a significant impact on food prices overall.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department of Health and the Department for Education have had discussions with supermarkets about the shortage in supply of fruit and vegetables.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department of Health and the Department for Education have had discussions with supermarkets about the shortage in supply of fruit and vegetables.
Neither Department has had any recent discussions with supermarkets about any shortage in supply of fruit and vegetables. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is responsible for food supply.
I thank the Minister for that reply, but he will have seen the news reports of empty shelves in supermarkets, with the crisis expected to last until the spring. Meanwhile prices have trebled, in part because it costs more to fly vegetables from the USA and Egypt than to bring them overland from Spain. Given the public health implications, is the department confident that there are sufficient alternative sources of vegetables, particularly in schools and hospitals? Is the department monitoring the prices to ensure that profiteering is not taking place? Finally, what lessons can we learn for future trade negotiations about the comparative price advantages of importing foods from the EU compared with, for example, importing from the US?
I thank the Minister for that reply, but he will have seen the news reports of empty shelves in supermarkets, with the crisis expected to last until the spring. Meanwhile prices have trebled, in part because it costs more to fly vegetables from the USA and Egypt than to bring them overland from Spain. Given the public health implications, is the department confident that there are sufficient alternative sources of vegetables, particularly in schools and hospitals? Is the department monitoring the prices to ensure that profiteering is not taking place? Finally, what lessons can we learn for future trade negotiations about the comparative price advantages of importing foods from the EU compared with, for example, importing from the US?
My Lords, my officials have been discussing these matters with retailers and New Covent Garden, and the situation is improving. Climate conditions in Spain and the Mediterranean are enabling the situation to improve, and goods from other sources of supply, such as the Americas, are coming in. But this is a time when we should be reflecting on using our own wonderful nutritious British vegetables. In the last few years, food prices have fallen by 7.4%—I think that may deal with some of what the noble Baroness might have been implying.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure a guaranteed supply of vegetables in the United Kingdom, in the light of restricted availability from Spain and other European countries.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure a guaranteed supply of vegetables in the United Kingdom, in the light of restricted availability from Spain and other European countries.
My Lords, the UK has a highly resilient food industry with effective supply chains providing wide consumer choice. The diversity of food supply from domestic and international sources allows for alternative products to be used when required. Retailers work with suppliers to ensure optimum availability, sourcing from alternative places if availability is restricted from usual suppliers. There are also many other fresh vegetable products fully available from seasonal UK production and international sources.