Wheat

(asked on 14th March 2022) - 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 discussions he has had with the NFU and food businesses on potential (a) increases in wheat costs and (b) shortage of availability as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 22nd March 2022

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges. Our food import dependency on the Eastern European region, including for wheat, is very low, so Defra does not expect any significant direct impact of this conflict on UK food supply. The UK produced 14m tonnes of wheat in 2021, close to the volume of wheat the UK consumes, and has stocks of 1.7m tonnes. We can also import cereals from alternative sources.

While the price of wheat may go up due to global market disruptions, the primary effect for UK farmers is likely to be an increase in the cost of a range of inputs including red diesel, animal feed, fertiliser, and energy.

It is not Government policy to determine which crops farmers should prioritise to include in their crop rotation. In 2021 we permanently removed Basic Payment Scheme ‘greening measures’ on crop diversification and ecological focus areas, meaning when growers are making crop planting decisions, they are free to react to market signals.

We are in regular contact with the NFU, major grain traders, manufacturers, and food retailers to understand the impacts of global events on supply chains. We are also working with the industry to identify where mitigations are available and continue to keep the situation under review.

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