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The Government risks “sleepwalking” into a food supply crisis unless it provides crucial support to British farmers struggling with rising fuel, fertilizer and feed costs, the National Farmers’ Union has warned.
Rising costs could result in supply problems for energy-intensive crops including tomatoes, cucumbers and pears – which are on track for their lowest yields since records began in 1985 – and rationing in supermarkets, as has been experienced recently for eggs, the union said.
The union said milk prices could fall below production costs and beef farmers were weighing whether to reduce the number of cows raised for slaughter in light of rising weight gain costs.
Rising input costs associated with the war in Ukraine as well as the pandemic were to blame, the NFU said, more than tripling the price of fertilizer since 2019, and the cost of fuel and food increased by nearly 75%. That’s on top of a six-fold increase in wholesale gas prices and increased checks and red tape for importers linked to Brexit.
The union is calling for state support for farmers, who it said have been forced out of business since the Covid outbreak, noting that the UK has lost nearly 7,000 agricultural businesses since 2019.
“Shoppers up and down the country have for decades had an assured supply of high-quality affordable food produced to some of the world’s highest animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards,” NFU President, Minet Batters told the BBC.
“But British food is at risk … at a time when global instability is threatening the stability of world food production, food security and energy security.”
“I fear that the country is sleeping through a further food supply crisis as the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies is in trouble,” she added.
The union is urging the government to lift the cap on seasonal foreign workers and introduce a food security target that will monitor and report on domestic food production levels.
It also calls for an investigation into whether “exceptional market conditions” should be declared in light of the disruption to egg production that has been exacerbated by the avian flu outbreak. Such a move would allow the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to provide assistance to egg farmers facing financial hardship.
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