Food: Ports

(asked on 30th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the amount of food that risks being wasted by delays at ports at the end of the transition period.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 15th January 2021

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain and the food industry is well-equipped to respond to disruption as was demonstrated during the initial Covid-19 response. Defra has well established ways of working with the food industry on preparedness for and response to potential food supply chain disruptions.

The Government carried out a worst-case scenario analysis to ensure there was sufficient waste management capacity to handle any additional waste arising. Over a 6 month period the Reasonable Worst Case Scenario (RWCS) for perishable goods including food, feed and drink was 142 KT and to date disruption has been minimal. The UK Government also published on Gov.uk planning assumptions on border flows for imported goods at the end of the transition period.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/920675/RWCS_for_our_borders_FINAL.pdf

To support the smooth flow of produce across the border and help prevent food wastage, the Government has put in place traffic management mitigations such as Operation Brock, published a 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 has also implemented a ‘fast-track’ service for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) arriving at the Kent border with a negative Covid-19 test worked closely with retailers to establish upstream testing to facilitate traffic flow.

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