By Kerry Maxwell, communications manager, British Poultry Council
Commentary on the ‘fragility of food supply chains’ is circulating in response to the threat of food shortages. The photos of empty shelves of fruit and vegetables might suggest otherwise but it is vitally important to remember that our supply chains are not fragile. If they were they would not work. It is the environment in which they are operating in that is fragile, if not downright unstable, what with rising production costs and an imbalanced trading relationship with the European Union.
As producers of half the meat the nation eats, valued for its affordability, our biggest concern is that without strong social protection measures and the right economic stimulus more people are going to fall outside the system. That undermines what poultry meat supply chains are designed to do. Since our food security, facilitating trade, business viability and food affordability are all interconnected, Government must get a grip on the SPS issues making their way onto people’s dinner tables, solving them under an agreement with our largest and most vital trading partner.
As exciting as it was to hear pledges to remove export barriers under a Labour government from party leader, Keir Starmer, at NFU’s 2023 Conference, it is tough not to feel downtrodden at the thought of the opposition’s long-awaited, pro-farming pitch simply being the promise of the bare minimum. As important a promise it is, with the need for fairness in EU trade underpinning most issues plaguing the industry that is feeding the nation, it truly reinforces just how much damage has been done since we departed the EU two years ago. Now it’s likely that it will be another couple of years before we can even begin to address said-damages. Meanwhile, 10 million people couldn’t access food on a regular basis at the end of 2022. With the way things are going, with rising production costs threatening to export British businesses in favour of cheaper imports, there may not be much of an industry left to fix before the next general election.
Today it’s a shortage of tomatoes, tomorrow it could be British poultry. A bit dramatic, maybe, but not entirely out of the realms of possibility given the state of British food production right now. BPC members will continue to do everything they can to mitigate any impact to people’s plates but the clash between Brexit rhetoric and the commercial realities of UK-EU trade is real, disruptive, and only 56 miles long. There is a single food chain that encompasses Dover to Calais. In refusing to fix SPS issues between the UK and EU and live up to their commitment that “farmers will have what they need,” Government continue to expose food frameworks, and consumers, to more volatility.