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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will reconvene the Food Resilience Industry Forum to discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the food supply chain.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges. Defra does not expect significant direct impacts to UK food supply as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nevertheless, Defra is engaging with industry via various forums to understand the impacts of the conflict on individual industries and supply chains in Defra’s sectors.

Defra is well-versed in responding to disruption if the dependencies were to lead to food supply disruption. Defra maintains a collaborative relationship with industry which allows us to effectively respond to disruption. This was successfully demonstrated in response to unprecedented disruption to both supply and demand throughout the Covid-19 response.

A Food Resilience Industry Forum can be stood-up at short notice should the need arise.