Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab) I beg to move, That this
House has considered the effect of the war in Ukraine on UK farming
and food production. It is a great pleasure to see you in the
Chair, Dame Angela, and thank you for your kind guidance on the
dress code. I will make do at the moment, but we will see how we go
when the heat of debate ratchets up. For me, the debate had its
genesis in discussions with many of the farmers in my constituency,
and...Request free trial
(City of Chester)
(Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the effect of the war in Ukraine
on UK farming and food production.
It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dame Angela, and
thank you for your kind guidance on the dress code. I will make
do at the moment, but we will see how we go when the heat of
debate ratchets up.
For me, the debate had its genesis in discussions with many of
the farmers in my constituency, and I start by paying tribute to
them for their help with my preparations for today, and also to
the National Farmers Union, which has given me so much
information. The war, which in many respects came out of nowhere,
has piled additional pressures on a sector that was already
facing great difficulties. At the outset, however, I want us to
turn our thoughts to the brave defenders of their Ukrainian
homeland and the colossal humanitarian disaster that they face in
Ukraine. I am afraid to say that we now also need to remember the
countless victims, it would seem, of war crimes, the evidence for
which mounts daily.
The invasion exacerbated existing inflationary and supply chain
pressures, which will have lasting consequences for the scale of
UK agricultural production. Globally, the conflict will
exacerbate the pressure on food supplies in the poorest parts of
the world. British farmers are growers, and they are price
takers. That means they are exposed and vulnerable to the
challenges of rising inflation in times of economic pressure. The
cost of producing food in the UK has increased drastically in
recent months. The cost of all agricultural inputs is going up,
including fuel, feed, packaging, transport, energy and, of
course, labour costs.
I pay tribute to all those who work in farming and food
production. It is a tough sector to work in, and for people in
such vital sectors, conditions have rarely been tougher. Costs
are spiralling and profit margins are falling, but they keep
going every day. The farmers from Cheshire I spoke to were
absolutely clear that they love what they do, and they keep going
because agriculture sits at the heart of the Cheshire economy and
at the heart of the British economy. They do that to keep the
country fed, and if we do not give them help—the help that they
need—they will not be able to do it for much longer.
The humanitarian disaster in Ukraine is being felt across the
globe. Large parts of the Ukrainian breadbasket are in conflict
zones and crops cannot be harvested, or if they can, the grain
and the produce cannot be exported, or, as we are seeing, they
are being stolen by Russia.
We are seeing the crisis impacting across the world, especially
in developing countries. Ukrainian grain feeds 400 million
people. The UK is also affected. Brexit has not helped, with
large reductions in the labour supply, but I was astonished to
hear that last year an incredible 60% of the seasonal
agricultural workforce came from Ukraine.
(Rutherglen and Hamilton
West) (Ind)
I thank the hon. Member for making that point. Ukrainians did
indeed make up 67% of seasonal workers between 2020 and 2022—a
huge contribution to the British farming sector. With more men
staying in Ukraine to fight the war, does he share my concerns
about the knock-on effect that that will have on UK food
production?
I absolutely do, and the hon. Lady is right. Many of those
workers are back defending their homeland—who can blame them for
that? The resultant labour shortages have been met with an
inevitable demand for increased wages. One Cheshire farmer told
me of an 11% increase in this year alone. Without sufficient
labour, farms simply cannot be profitable and, frankly, sometimes
cannot work. As one farmer put it, “We’re all running hand to
mouth.”
I am not going to query or reject the idea that farm labourers
should not get a decent pay rise. I am a trade unionist and I
absolutely support that, but the costs need to be shared fairly
across the sector and borne by the whole chain. Day-to-day costs
are rocketing. Fertiliser, which can increase crop yield by about
30%, has become cripplingly expensive. One Cheshire farmer
estimated to me that his fertiliser costs had risen by 300% in
just over a year, while another suggested that he was being
optimistic and it was more than that.
The situation has not been helped by the closure of the CF
Fertilisers factory in Ellesmere Port. I know how hard my
neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and
Neston () has been working to find a
solution to keep the factory open, and he has told me that he is
in regular contact with the Minister and her Department—I thank
her for that. I desperately hope that we get a solution to the
problem, and I thank them both for their work.
Without fertiliser, crop yields will fall. I remind the House
that farmers do not tend to buy fertiliser on the spot. They are
already ordering their supplies for next year, just as they are
already planning crops, ordering animal feed and securing energy
deals for six, 12 and 18 months ahead. The uncertainty globally
and domestically is impossible to live with.
One of the big asks of the NFU is to have a gas fertiliser price
index. Fertiliser markets are opaque, meaning that farmers have
low trust in those markets, and are receiving poor market signals
to enable them to be responsive. That is a threat to confidence,
because farmers do not want to invest in fertiliser, which is
stalling fertiliser sales, as well as threatening farmers’
productivity and the UK’s productive capacity. The NFU wants
farmers to have access to proactive forward prices on fertiliser,
allowing producers, distributors and farmers alike to manage
their risk. That will require Government to establish a trusted
gas fertiliser index with the industry, to drive transparency in
fertiliser markets.
In addition, the industry needs to be able to see clearly where
the market is relative to the global benchmark prices. That is
well established in the grain, dairy and meat markets. It is also
a fact that much of the gas that was used to produce the
fertiliser came from Russia. I welcome the fact that we are
reducing—I hope to zero—any dealings that we have with Russia,
including buying gas from it, but we have to recognise that that
will have a major impact on this market.
Fuel costs are also on the rise. Red diesel is more expensive,
with one farming contractor I know of having to increase their
cash reserve by an astonishing £50,000 to pay for fuel costs.
Meanwhile, farmers pay more than ever to fill up the machines
that keep their businesses going. Those affected ask me why crude
oil prices fall, but their costs go up. The answer is sadly
clear: this is a broken market, and without action to address it,
things will only go downhill.
Food production relies very much on the packaging available, much
of it specialised for certain foodstuffs. Even essentials such as
cardboard and the necessary plastics for meat storage are in
short supply, before we consider more specialised materials such
as silage. British food has some of the lowest carbon footprint
in the world, due to how efficient British farmers are, but there
is only so much they can do on their own. Such businesses are
starting to feel that they are, almost literally, at the bottom
of the food chain.
As things stand, the risk is entirely with the farmer. For
example, a potato farmer stored his crop from the 2021 harvest
until June 2022—just last month—without earning an extra penny
from the processer. One grower was paid £200,000 for potatoes,
which sold in the supermarket for £4.2 million, so the grower
received only 4.7%. Free-range eggs have also gone up at least
20p per dozen in supermarkets, but only 5p of that increase goes
to the producer. Farmers want to grow, to survive and to
flourish, but we must have a market that allows that. We need to
take the bottlenecks out of the system, so that it flows more
smoothly. Only by threatening to withhold supplies did dairy
farmers secure a slightly better deal, and they are still
struggling.
This period of unprecedented agricultural inflation coincides
with the introduction of the agricultural transition plan from
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, under
which the old direct support payments to farmers in England under
the common agricultural policy are being reduced. Farmers have
already received significant cuts to those old direct payments,
with further to come this year. The largest farms will receive
cuts of 40%.
The Government are in the process of rolling out new support
schemes, but the NFU is seriously concerned that the new schemes
simply are not ready for farmers to be able to access them and
start to make up the shortfall. That is not just the view of the
NFU; it has been echoed by the National Audit Office, the Public
Accounts Committee, and the Institute for Government. Vital farm
supplies sit inaccessible in Ukraine, and veterinary medication
sits undeliverable in Northern Ireland because of the problems
with Brexit. Alternative options are becoming scarce.
When British farmers suffer, so does the rest of the world. As
the crisis in Ukraine hits other nations, one farmer asked me why
Britain, as a leading member of the G7, does not consider its own
agricultural sector to be part of the solution. The farmers who
told me their stories also tell a sorry tale about the future of
the sector. One simply asked, “Where is the future?” Every year,
8% of dairy farmers quit their business. Previously, others would
step in to replace them. That, it seems, is no longer the case.
As confidence falls, young farmers find that they cannot get
loans. They cannot get started and cannot continue this proud
British tradition.
I wish to finish on a positive note on behalf of the UK farming
sector. I want to celebrate the success of the sector and the
hard work and 365 days a year commitment of our farmers and farm
labourers. Let us make every day Back British Farming Day and let
us resolve to get a fair deal for farmers. The future could be
positive. As I have said, British food has one of the lowest
carbon footprints in the world. Our farmers tell me they want to
adapt to further change—certainly moving away, for example, from
carbon-intensive fertiliser—but they want to be able to do so in
a managed way and not in a way where they are faced, as they
currently are, with the shock brought about by the war. They want
to reduce emissions and move to more sustainable fertiliser, as I
have said. They want to reduce antibiotic use and further
increase animal welfare, but they are doing that now on
wafer-thin margins. As one farmer put it in what is probably a
very agricultural farming way, “We have no fat on our backs right
now, and we need this.”
Farmers want to grow, survive, flourish and contribute to the
success of our nation. The war has put intolerable pressure on
them at a time when the prevailing situation was already
difficult. They feel that all the increasing cost pressures are
being borne by the farming sector when they should be shared
across the entire food chain. We must have a domestic market that
allows that contribution to flourish.
Dame (in the Chair)
I call .
9.42am
(Strangford) (DUP)
Thank you, Dame Angela. It is unusual for me, although I am very
pleased, to be called first. You almost knocked me off my stride
there. May I first of all thank the hon. Member for City of
Chester ()? He is a dear friend—he
knows that—and I support all that he said in his introduction. He
set the scene very well. We are all here today because we
understand the importance of farming. For me and my constituents,
it is critical. I live on a farm. I declare an interest as a
farmer and a member of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, so I thank the
hon. Gentleman for securing this debate.
I do not have the time to work on the farm as I would like to. If
not for my father’s illness many years ago, I would probably have
been a farmer. Unfortunately, at that time it coincided with the
purchase of the farm. My job on the farm—my mother still owns the
farm that I live on—is to look after the buildings and maintain
the structures and roads and so on. It is quite a job. On
Saturday afternoon my job is to go about and make sure those
tasks are done. Next week when I am off during recess I will have
more time, and will be doing all those wee jobs at night-time as
well. It is an absolute pleasure and privilege to live on a farm,
so I am pleased to contribute to the debate on behalf of my
farmers.
I am well placed, as others are in this Chamber, to highlight the
needs of the farming community. I really am pleased to see the
Minister in her place. She has an incredible understanding of the
issue, and I know that when we speak to the Minister and ask her
a question, we push at an open door because she always responds.
I mean that genuinely and seriously, because every one of us
appreciates that opportunity to contact the Minister about issues
that are so important to us. I mostly contact the Minister about
fishing, but I have occasion to ask about farming issues
today.
Russia is the world’s biggest exporter of wheat, producing around
18% of international exports, and Ukraine produces around 12% of
the world’s wheat. Ukraine also produces 17.5% of the world’s
supply of maize, as Farmers Guide recently outlined:
“The war in Ukraine has added another layer of uncertainty for
British farmers after an already tumultuous couple of years.
Recent weeks have sparked concern over the supply and spiralling
cost of input and supplies, with the market changing on a
day-to-day basis.”
The hon. Gentleman referred to that: there is a change almost
every week, a price increase and hike, which presents lots of
problems.
Global food supply chains were already facing significant
pressure before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Today, inflation
has hit an astronomical 9.4%. There have even been reports that
food banks are struggling to maintain enough resources. Does the
hon. Gentleman agree that there needs to be swift action, to
ensure that vulnerable people have access to affordable food?
As so often, the hon. Lady makes a very sensible and helpful
point. I wholeheartedly agree, not because she says it, but
because I can see the practical issues for food banks in my
constituency. The week before last we had a collection at
the Tesco store in Ards,
where people were incredibly generous. That helps the food banks
to sustain their coffers, cupboards and shelves, but they tell me
they see incredible pressures they have never seen before—and
there have been some difficult times over the past while.
The Farmers Guide also points out:
“the market changing on a day-to-day basis—making business
planning for the future extremely difficult…Livestock farmers
buying in feed will have been hit by the wheat price increases
from around £220/tonne to nearly £300/tonne, while fertiliser
prices have reacted very strongly, rising from £200-300/tonne a
year ago to around £1,000/tonne.”
That is something that farmers tell me. That is an increase of
almost 400%, which is astronomical and leads to concerns about
availability.
I spoke to a neighbour last Sunday on my walk at about 7 o’clock
in the morning, which is always a nice time. I passed him in the
lane and asked how he was getting on. He told me he does not put
as much fertiliser on the ground because it is too costly. The
only way to compensate is to cut back and use less fertiliser. He
told me they had been fortunate this year. The first cut was not
a good one, but the second cut was equal to last year, because of
the weather, which has been incredibly warm, but there have been
showers of rain as well. Less fertiliser is a godsend in a way;
it means that the second cut of silage, and probably the third,
will be good with less fertiliser. Maybe the soil had lots of
fertiliser in it; I guess that might be part of the reason.
The main thing is that there is an incredible problem for
farmers, who are in a precarious state at present. One local man
said,
“The price we get has risen.”
That is the beef price, which is good at the minute. Lamb prices
are not too bad, either. The hon. Member for City of Chester
referred to poultry and eggs. Egg prices are under pressure; they
are not matching the outgoings and are not sustainable. There is
an onus on supermarkets to give a better price to egg producers.
I am fortunate that I start every day with two eggs. Dame Angela,
you are probably of the generation who remembers
“Go to work on an egg.”
I go to work on two eggs every morning, and would do that during
the day, as well. I say that because of the importance of the egg
sector. I thank the hon. Gentleman for mentioning that.
That local man said,
“The price has risen but the money in our pocket has not.”
One of the greatest farm economists, Mark Berrisford-Smith of
HSBC, has suggested that we are now in a position reminiscent of
1973, with the OPEC crisis and the Yom Kippur war. In 1975, we
saw up to 25% inflation resulting from our inability to deal with
the quadrupling oil prices. There was some encouragement in the
press yesterday—if it is correct—that the price of filling a car
may fall by £10. I hope that is right, and the cost keeps on
reducing. We need that help.
Our farmers are facing long-term problems, and now is not the
time to pull back on support. Indeed, it is the time to step it
up. We need to sustain and help our farmers at this present time.
Our farmers are not able to fill the breach from Ukraine and
Russia—it is impossible; the gap is too large—but we need to look
at how to help them. To be able to fill the gap, they need
support. We need to be raising new generations of farmers who are
trained in the old ways and who also want to push for the new
ways that enhance production and the environmental protections,
providing the best of both worlds. I am a great believer in the
need for farmers to protect the land and have environmental
schemes in place. I know the Minister is as well. There is a
balancing job to do between the two. There is land that perhaps
should be in farming, and there are some concerns about some
projects by some of the bigger charities, for instance the
National Trust, who want to set land aside and not use it for
farming. I do not want to be critical, but I make that point.
That is sometimes not the right way to do it.
The impact of the Ukraine and Russia war has been large and it
will continue. This House, this Minister, our Government and
ourselves as MPs on behalf of our constituents must play our part
in the short term, as well as the long term.
9.51am
(Wirral West) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester
() on securing this debate
and on his excellent opening speech. I join him in expressing
solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Last week, I met a group of farmers in my constituency of Wirral
West, along with representatives of the National Farmers Union. I
heard from them about the pressures that farmers are facing. We
are in a time of severe economic pressure that has been
exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. British farmers have
been left exposed and vulnerable to the challenges of rising
inflation. The cost of agricultural inputs such as fuel, feed,
packaging, transport, labour and energy is increasing.
As the House of Commons Library has noted, the cost of feeding
livestock has risen considerably in the past six months, with
many farmers dependent on feed prices set on a global market.
Feed prices for livestock were stable in the first half of 2021,
but increased by 18% between August 2021 and April 2022. Energy
input costs for farms increased by 34% between January and April
this year. Farm motor fuel costs increased by 30% over the same
period. All that means, of course, that the cost of producing
food in the UK has increased considerably in recent months, and
that affects the availability and affordability of food to
consumers.
This period of unprecedented agricultural inflation coincides
with the introduction of DEFRA’s agricultural transition plan,
under which direct payments, the old support payments to farmers
in England under the common agricultural policy, are being
reduced. Farmers have already experienced significant cuts to
direct payments, with further to come this year.
The Government are in the process of rolling out new support
schemes, but farmers have expressed concerns about the timescales
for their implementation and whether they will provide farmers
with enough support. The Public Accounts Committee has criticised
the Department for what it calls its “blind optimism” about the
introduction of the schemes and the insufficient detail about how
they will make up for the ending of current approaches. Can the
Minister tell us what action the Government will take, as a
matter of urgency, to address those concerns?
The UK’s food self-sufficiency has reduced significantly in
recent years. In 1990, we produced 74% of our food; by 2000, that
figure was 67%, and in 2021 it was down to 60%. The NFU is
calling on the Government to commit to maintaining the UK’s food
production self-sufficiency at 60% and helping to create an
environment for farm and food businesses to thrive and compete in
the coming years.
The NFU points out that we cannot be a global leader in
climate-friendly food if we allow our own production levels to
drop. The UK is only 18% self-sufficient in fruit, 55% in fresh
vegetables and 71% in potatoes. For both veg and potatoes, that
figure has fallen by 16% in the past 20 years. While the nation
is encouraged to be healthier and eat more fruit and veg, our
domestic production of those products falls below our potential.
What assessment have the Government made of the UK’s declining
food self-sufficiency?
In December last year, the Government published the “United
Kingdom Food Security Report 2021”, in which they concluded
that
“Global food supply and availability has improved since 2010”
and was “expected to recover” from the problems caused by the
covid-19 pandemic. Of course, that was before Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine, so can the Minister tell us what assessment the
Government have made of the UK’s food security in the light of
that?
As the Minister will know, the UK food security report also
listed several factors that threaten the stability and long-term
sustainability of global food production, one of which was
climate change. The report stated:
“Longer growing seasons and warmer temperatures may have some
positive effects for particular crops and regions, but overall
risk magnitude is assessed to increase from medium at present to
high in future. Increased climate exposure (including heat
stress, drought risk, and wetness-related risks) is modifying
productive capacity and will continue to do so in future in line
with the degrees of warming experienced.”
Over the past few days, we have seen stark warnings in this
regard, with record temperatures recorded across the UK, fields
and buildings on fire, and emergency services facing
unprecedented challenges. I hope the Minister and her colleagues
will impress on the new leader of the Conservative party—and our
new Prime Minister—the critical importance of addressing climate
change as a matter of urgency. I have to say that the lack of
concern put on this issue by the leadership candidates in recent
days has been extremely worrying. The future Prime Minister bears
a huge responsibility in this regard, not only for this
generation but for future generations.
It is vital that we build resilience in farming and food
production in England and across the UK, and I look forward to
the Minister’s response to the many important points raised by
Members in this debate.
9.56am
(Ceredigion) (PC)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I
congratulate the hon. Member for City of Chester () on securing this
important debate. Having spoken in other debates with him
recently, I know just how passionate he is about UK agriculture
and food production, and I thought that he conveyed that, and his
understanding of the sector, very well.
It is also a real pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wirral
West (), who eloquently
emphasised how much the cost of imports has increased, and the
different impacts that is having across different sectors of the
agriculture industry. That is presenting a challenge not only to
farmers but further down the line, through food inflation, for
household budgets, which is pertinent to this debate.
Today’s debate is very timely. Across the UK, over the decades,
we have perhaps become a bit complacent when it comes to our food
security and self-sufficiency. Members have already set out how
the UK’s self-sufficiency has declined. It is worth repeating
that, at the moment, UK agriculture produces some 60% of domestic
food by value, and some 45% is exported. We import some 46% of
the food that we consume. That compares unfavourably to the
situation back in 1984, when we were 78% self-sufficient. The
hon. Member for Wirral West detailed how that figure has declined
over the ensuing decades.
I am willing to acknowledge that part of that reduction is a
result of our changing dietary preferences and habits, and it is
important to reflect that in the debate. We now enjoy a lot of
foods that are not produced in the UK, or cannot easily be
produced in the UK, and we want to consume them out of season. I
may return to that at the end of my speech; it is a particular
bugbear of mine.
It is worth pointing out that the self-sufficiency percentage is
a general figure, which does not really tell us the story for
different types of food produce. It would be remiss of me, as a
Member of Parliament from Wales, not to point out that we produce
more lamb in the UK than we consume. We also produce more milk
than we consume, for that matter. Although we are still well
below self-sufficiency in the fruit and veg sectors and the
poultry sector, as has been mentioned, it is important to reflect
that our self-sufficiency has increased somewhat in recent years
even in those sectors.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has a massive impact on UK food
production as well as global food production. We are interlinked:
pressures on the global level are felt at the farm gate in
Ceredigion, as well as in other parts of the UK. That is
particularly challenging after two years of covid-19 and the
disruption of the pandemic, not just for food producers but for
the associated supply chains, and after a turbulent period before
covid-19 for farm-gate prices in a whole range of sectors. We
come to this debate at a time of unprecedented immediate
pressures, having recently suffered another unprecedented shock
to the global food system on the back of difficult and lean years
before that. The UK food production industry is in a challenging
and precarious situation.
I was struck by the definition of food security in the
Government’s food security report, which reflects the fact that
it is a complex concept. It states that food security
“encompasses the state of global agriculture and markets on which
the UK is reliant; the sources of raw materials and foodstuffs in
the UK and abroad; the manufacturing, wholesale, and retail
industries that ultimately bring food to shelves and plates, and
their complex supply chains of inputs and logistics; and the
systems of inspection that allow consumers to be confident their
food is safe, authentic, and of a high standard.”
I will not touch on all those aspects, although it is important
to note them, but I will say that the shock that we are
experiencing now, with the price of farm imports in particular,
risks destabilising many of the other dimensions encompassed by
food security.
The most pressing issues are import prices and the significant
increase in the price of raw materials. We have already heard how
the war in Ukraine has had a massive impact in that regard. That
is reflected in the agricultural price index, which show that in
the 12 months to April, the price for agricultural imports
increased by 28.4%. A further assessment by the independent
consultant Andersons suggests that the most recent estimate of
inflation in agriculture is 25.3%.
We recently had a debate in this Chamber on some of those
challenges, but it is worth repeating that the rate of general
inflation is running slightly below that of agriculture
inflation. Agflation is an acute problem and I am sure that other
hon. Members share my concern not only that that is putting
immense pressure on our farmers, but that it may well feed into
further food inflation and pressures on household budgets down
the line.
In my remaining time, I will focus on the way that price hikes in
the immediate term pose a serious challenge to our production in
the longer term. Having spoken to many farmers in Ceredigion, I
fear that the true impact on the UK agricultural industry of
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not be truly felt until next
year. As has been mentioned, a lot of that has to do with farmers
having to plan their future feed and import fertilisers at the
moment, many of which are on onward prices. Farmers are having to
make difficult decisions that will have an impact on their
productive capacity in forthcoming years.
Let us look at fuel and energy. The hon. Member for City of
Chester mentioned the impact of the price of red diesel on
farmers. Indeed, if we compare the average price per litre from
January this year with the most recent average price from the end
of June, it has increased by 25p. We know that Russia is a major
supplier of oil and gas to the European market, which has seen an
almost fourfold price increase since the invasion. That in turn
is having an impact on fuel costs and, more specifically,
fertilisers.
Other hon. Members present today were here for a previous debate
in this Chamber in which we discussed the real challenges that
increased fertiliser costs pose for farmers. I will not repeat
myself, other than by noting that the increased cost of
fertilisers is forcing farmers to make difficult decisions about
their business models and practices. I acknowledge that the
impact might be felt quite differently in different sectors of
the agriculture industry—it might be different for certain arable
farmers and livestock farmers.
It is also worth pointing out that, at least at the outset of the
invasion, many arable farmers may well have been covered for
their fertiliser requirements for this year, and may not have had
to expose themselves to the price hikes that we saw thereafter.
As I mentioned, however, farmers have to plan ahead, and I know
that many—even in the arable sector—are looking ahead and
thinking, “Do we need to carry over some of our fertiliser for
this year and therefore use less in the current season, so that
we can buffer ourselves a little bit for what promise to be very
expensive prices next year?” It is a real headache for other
sectors—livestock and beef in particular—and many farmers have
told me that their fertiliser bills have increased from £200 to
£700 per tonne before VAT. Of course, if we add VAT on top of
that, it is an eye-watering sum.
The tragedy of the situation is that these price hikes have come
after a turbulent period, with covid-19 and a decade of rather
difficult times for farm-gate prices. Although prices have
increased for some produce in the last few months—it is fair to
say that dairy prices have increased significantly, and I am told
that the lamb price is holding up fairly well, as is the price
for beef—certain farmers will not have the reserves to shoulder
and absorb a lot of these costs in the long term. I am worried
that farmers and growers are having to adapt to higher costs and
anticipate the impact of a prolonged period of turbulence, which
they have to assume will be the case, by taking very difficult
decisions regarding their farming practices, which in turn will
have an alarming impact on UK food production.
NFU Cymru recently conducted a survey of more than 700 farmers in
Wales, and it found that 71% intend to reduce production in the
next year. To break that down into different sectors, 54% of beef
farmers said that they will reduce stock numbers in the next 12
months, which will result in an estimated 10% cut to the beef
herd. Some 46% of sheep farmers also said that they will reduce
their stock in the next 12 months, and 39% of arable farmers said
that crop production levels will reduce over the next year. That
is already happening, and those decisions will probably have been
made in order to be implemented by next year. That is a
significant drop in our productive capacity at a time when we
already know that we are not self-sufficient at the levels that
we would like to be.
As well as not having enough productive capacity to become more
self-sufficient for our dietary needs, we will find ourselves
even more vulnerable in the long term to the global agriculture
market and any external shocks that happen there. The war in
Ukraine has led to tonnes of grain, sunflower oil and other
produce being blockaded at Black sea ports, which is already
having an impact in the horn of Africa. It is said that Ukraine
feeds approximately 400 million in the world. That pressure will
not go away; indeed, there is a strong argument that the real
impact will be felt next year, when the harvest has not been
harvested and the grain cannot get out. This is a very serious
issue, which will weigh heavily on import prices for our own
farmers. If we are to become more exposed to and dependent on the
global market for many of our staples, that will mean higher
prices for the consumer.
Ultimately, this debate has brought to the fore the need for us
to think again about how we increase our self-sufficiency in the
UK for the food that we consume and, therefore, for our food
security. A few things have been mentioned already, such as the
establishment of a fertiliser price index in order to have
greater transparency and to allow farmers to plan with greater
confidence and avoid having to make difficult decisions about the
use of fertiliser. I repeat the plea for us to look again at
fertiliser plants, and at whether there is a need for the
Government to intervene to acknowledge them as strategically
important pieces of infrastructure.
Finally—this is a debate for another day, but it is one that we
must have in the near future—we need to shift our food production
to a more local and seasonal basis. That will not always be
popular, but perhaps we have reached the point where we need to
face up to the reality. Is it sensible that we can go into our
local supermarket on Christmas eve and buy fresh strawberries? I
think we have come to the point where we can no longer afford
that illusion of sustainability. Perhaps the future is more local
and more seasonal.
10.10am
(Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch
and Strathspey) (SNP)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I
congratulate the hon. Member for City of Chester () on securing a really
important and timely debate on the situation that our farmers are
facing just now. This is a time of real pressure for people
working in the agricultural industry and the food sector, for
lots of reasons. The hon. Member covered some themes that were
repeated by other hon. Members: the cost of fertiliser, the cost
of fuel, and farmers leaving the business. The theme progressed
throughout the debate, and it would be well worth the Minister
paying heed to the warnings that have been laid out very clearly
in the Chamber. The Government fail to act to support farmers at
their peril, given some of the issues that have come up.
The hon. Member for Strangford (), who is a farmer himself, talked about the
investment required by farmers. That is an experience that he has
shared with me in conversations about his developments. Farmers
have to make choices about investment, and quite often the money
and reserves are not there for them to do so. There are ongoing
costs. He talked about the importance of farming, which should be
underlined: it is an important industry and an important business
for people to be in. It supports us. He also talked about the
need for investment in training and development, and for policies
that take that forward. That is critical. We should look at
farming as an essential career. That goes for all the nations of
the UK: it should be considered as an essential industry and
supported.
Another theme from the hon. Member for Strangford was the gap in
world food production caused by the war. That is a pressure we
must think about in relation to another recurring theme: food
security. In her intervention, the hon. Member for Rutherglen and
Hamilton West () talked about the need to
think about vulnerable people’s access to food, and she is
absolutely correct. When we have these high-level discussions
about what is happening, we forget that the issue affects people
in houses and homes across our communities, who are now facing
previously untold hardship—things that they have not had to face
in their lifetimes. That is happening right now. It is all part
of the cause and effect that is in place here.
The hon. Member for Ceredigion () talked about changing dietary
habits, and he is absolutely correct. That is a complex matter.
We need to talk about what we must encourage people to do; about
what kind of healthy eating and supply we must look at in future.
Another theme was pressure for raw materials leading to
longer-term impacts, which again need to be taken into
consideration. There must be a longer-term plan for dealing with
that. He talked about farmers making reductions and repeated the
theme of farmers leaving the industry.
Thank goodness somebody—the hon. Member for Wirral West ()—raised the issue of
climate change. It is an issue that we do not address enough in
this Parliament—when I say “enough,” I am being very generous. It
is another impact in the heady mix that we have to pay some
attention to. We had record temperatures yesterday and houses
burning as a result. This is something we are living with now,
and hon. Members should be talking about it all the time. It is
another impact that farmers are having to deal with; they are
seeing changes to their environments, their farms and their
livestock, with different ways of having to manage them. Again,
that brings costs and puts pressures on the industry, including
whether the farmers have the will to keeping working in it
sometimes.
The hon. Member for Wirral West also talked about domestic food
production declining—a theme I will come back to—rising prices
for energy, feed and fuel; and the significant cuts to support
that have been imposed on farmers over the past decade or so of
austerity. Those are all important themes.
The Scottish Government are aware and are acting where they can,
but the UK Government have a duty to act to safeguard domestic
food security by supporting farmers, producers and consumers. I
repeat that the Minister should take this warning and speak to
colleagues about abandoning the laissez-faire policy on trade
deals and protecting domestic food production.
The hon. Member for City of Chester brought up the effect of
labour shortages. It seems to have gone quiet but it is a real
effect. It is a Brexit-induced problem. We have a mad rush for
dodgy deals with New Zealand and Australia, which are going to
impact farmers directly. It is not just my opinion that it will
harm the farming and food sector; it is also the opinion of the
National Farmers Union of Scotland, the National Farmers Union,
trade experts, academics and the UK Government’s own departmental
advice about the deals. However, they are still going to impose
it on farmers on this isle.
We have talked about the cost of fertiliser—which has trebled—the
cost of feed and energy, and farmers selling off livestock and
cutting production. As a consequence of Brexit, UK farmers are
set to miss out on access to a proposed €1.5 billion emergency
fund. The UK Government were warned before this crisis that their
policies are undermining domestic production of food and forcing
reliance on more food imports, and the New Zealand and Australia
deals do not help that. As we have heard, UK food
self-sufficiency is now below 60%. A couple of decades ago it was
80%. That is a red flashing warning light about what is
happening. Food security must not be considered a thing of the
past.
The UK Government must now correct their course and deliver a UK
food security fund proportional to what UK farmers would have
received as part of the EU, to be administered by the devolved
Governments. Failure to do so in the face of denying financial
powers for the Scottish Government to act, such as simple
borrowing powers, only reinforces the glaring need for Scotland
to have the full powers of independence in order to protect our
own farmers and food sector where this place fails, and continues
to fail. Unless there is a change in course, it will continue to
fail farmers across the nations of the UK.
10.18am
(Leeds North West)
(Lab/Co-op)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Angela. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for City of Chester
() on not only securing
this important debate but making an eloquent speech, which I
agreed with entirely.
I will start by acknowledging my own family history with Ukraine.
My paternal side is from Lviv and lived there for hundreds of
years. I had cordial discussions with the Minister in the run-up
to the debate, and I will take up the recommendation to read
“East West Street” by Philippe Sands. Labour stands unshakably
with Ukraine and our NATO allies in supporting Ukraine against an
unprovoked and unjustified invasion by Russia. We have supported
the Government’s measures to provide greater military and aid
assistance to Ukraine, but on the subject of this debate—the
effect of the war in Ukraine on UK farming and food production—we
are somewhat critical.
Ukraine is a beautiful country, with some of the most productive
agricultural land in Europe, and indeed the world. It is the
breadbasket of Europe and its hard-working farmers produce much
of the world’s grain and sunflower oil. Ukraine and Russia, as
significant producers of sunflower seeds, barley, wheat, maize,
rapeseed and soybean, are collectively responsible for 29% of the
world’s wheat exports. The World Food Programme estimates that
Ukraine grows enough food to feed 400 million people. This is not
a short-term problem. The fact that there are Russian mines
sitting in the fields of Ukraine will be with us for many years
to come.
This debate is focused on the impact of the Russian war in
Ukraine on food and farming in the UK. The UK’s food supply chain
has been under intense strain over the past months and years,
from spiralling food price inflation to the fertiliser crisis and
labour shortages. These shocks impact businesses, workers and
people up and down the country, who are forced to choose between
putting food in the fridge or money on the meter, with those on
the lowest incomes hurting the most.
The impacts on the food system go far wider, as much of the
developing world is plunged into food insecurity and the risk of
famine. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization projects that
the war in Ukraine will cause an increase in global food prices
in 2022 of between 8% and 22%. The UK food sector has been
raising its concerns over several months. The Food and Drink
Federation has said that the invasion of Ukraine was likely to
impact negatively on the trading ambitions of its businesses, and
I feel that is somewhat understated. Food supply chains in the UK
are already under intense strain, now exacerbated by war.
Producers are struggling with a lack of availability of key
ingredients, such as sunflower oil, which is used in many
products on supermarket shelves. The price of alternatives is
rising dramatically.
The impacts are stark and clear, and many experts have been
warning of the situation we might face, yet the Government have
been at best late, and at worst absent from this crisis. While
tensions were mounting between Ukraine and Russia last autumn and
analysts were warnings about what could be coming, the
Government’s food security report cited Ukraine as a country with
a high market share of the global maize supply and said they did
not expect any
“major changes…in world agricultural commodity markets and the
top exporting countries of these commodities.”
Early in December, the US released intelligence of Russia’s
invasion plans. Later in December, the Government released their
food security report, which said:
“Real wheat prices are expected to decline in the coming years
based on large supplies being produced in the Black Sea
region”.
Were the Government simply unaware of the potential for the
situation to impact our food supply and global wheat prices, or
were they just ignoring it? It is clear that there was a severe
lack of planning going on in DEFRA. Labour called on the
Government to reconvene the Food Resilience Industry
Forum—something they eventually did and which we welcomed; we
just wish it had happened sooner. The Government maintain that
they do
“not expect significant direct impacts to UK food supply as a
result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine”,
but the sector is seriously worried, as are consumers, who are
facing rising prices. To no one’s surprise, except perhaps the
Government, food price inflation hit 6.8% in the year to May 2022
and has continued to rise—a point well made by my hon. Friend the
Member for Wirral West () and the hon. Member for
Ceredigion ().
The Government delayed their promised response to the national
food strategy, citing the invasion of Ukraine as a reason. I
understand they were facing a changing situation, but I reiterate
that it was not an unexpected one. Are they suggesting that the
necessary planning for possible impacts began only after the
invasion was first declared in February this year and not when
the first warnings were put out by reputable intelligence
analysts? Perhaps if we had seen a proper White Paper from the
Government when it was originally promised, there would have been
a more robust and effective framework for dealing with the shocks
that the sector is facing.
The war in Ukraine is placing significant pressure on British
agriculture. This sector has suffered crisis after crisis in the
past few years, from the pig backlog, which saw tens of thousands
of healthy pigs culled on farms, to the botched roll-out of the
environmental land management scheme. During these difficult
times, when other nations in the UK and in mainland Europe
stepped in to help, our Government have consistently refused to
lend a hand to English farmers. The message is they are on their
own and the market is the final arbiter. Some of them will go
bust but, as the Government see it, that is the way things have
to be. Now the conflict in Ukraine poses one of the biggest
challenges yet. I would like to say that the Government have
finally come to understand that their approach is the wrong one
and they are willing to step up and provide meaningful support,
to farmers and protect British food security. Sadly, they have
been so far unwilling to intervene.
The Opposition take a different view, however, because
intervention is not alien to us. Labour has routinely raised its
concerns that many farms will be unable to cope with the war in
Ukraine pushing up the price of agricultural inputs. The
agricultural prices indices for inputs and outputs in the UK
increased dramatically from the end of 2021 to the beginning of
2022, and the Ukrainian conflict has resulted in significant gas
price increases throughout the world. At the start of 2021,
growers were being charger 40p per therm, but prices have since
surged as high as £8. The Lea Valley Growers Association has
issued a warning that UK harvests of sweet peppers and cucumbers
will halve this year after many glasshouse growers chose not to
plant in the face of surging energy prices. Producers have warned
that yields of other indoor crops, such as tomatoes and
aubergines, will also be hit.
Fertiliser production is reliant on gas, and as the international
gas price soars, so does the cost of fertiliser. In January 2021,
the cost of ammonium nitrate was £200 per tonne. That figure now
stands at £900 per tonne. That is simply unsustainable for many
agricultural businesses. The Government’s recently announced
measures to address fertiliser inflation are too little, too
late. CF Fertilisers’ announcement that it will permanently close
one of its factories in Ellesmere Port is yet another blow to the
farming sector—another point eloquently made by my hon. Friend
the Member for City of Chester. After months of dither and delay,
can the Minister set out the steps the Government are taking to
help farmers access affordable energy and fertiliser, and how the
Government intend to curb agricultural inflation?
At the same time as farmers are contending with sky-high
inflation, they must deal with a shortage of seasonal workers.
The shortage is, in part, a consequence of the war in Ukraine; in
2021, 67% of seasonal agricultural visas went to Ukrainians,
while a further 11% were awarded to Russians and Belarusians.
However, the blame for the worker shortage lies squarely with the
Government. It was originally announced that there would be
30,000 horticultural seasonal worker visas this year, a figure
that was then increased to 40,000, with 2,000 of those visas
awarded to poultry workers—an increase that many farming bodies
have said is too little, too late. The National Farmers Union has
predicted that there will be demand for 70,000 seasonal worker
visas this year. A farmer confidence survey conducted by the
union in January found that 86% of respondents expected low or
very low levels of worker availability.
The shortages have had enormous consequences for farmers and keep
pushing up prices at the till, at a time when 7.3 million
households are experiencing food poverty. Industry experts claim
that the labour shortage on British farms has resulted in
“catastrophic food waste” of home-grown fruit and vegetables.
Many farmers face bankruptcy if they cannot access the labour
they need to harvest the crops.
We are in this dire situation because the Government have once
again stumbled their way into a crisis, refusing to listen to
warnings from farmers, industry and the Opposition, who have been
raising the alarm about worker shortages for months. Their
refusal to listen has left the Government pursuing a failed
post-Brexit approach to agricultural labour that will see food
rotting in the fields while millions of households go hungry. Can
the Minister say how she intends to help farmers struggling to
find seasonal labour, and what plans the Department has to put an
end to the shortage?
The war in Ukraine has further exposed Britain’s flawed food
system. Despite ample opportunities to take action, the
Government have failed time and again to strengthen the system. I
fear that the change in management in the Conservative party will
not result in any real change, as its MPs have been more than
happy to support Government inaction for months. Looking at the
contenders left in the leadership race, we are likely to see even
more zealous commitment to the market fundamentalism that is
happy to let British agriculture go to the wall.
While the Conservatives may be unwilling to support British
farmers and food producers, Labour will. On the shortage of
seasonal workers, through our five-point plan to make Brexit
work, Labour will deliver. We will sort out the poor deal that
the Prime Minister negotiated and seek to find new, flexible
labour mobility arrangements for those making short-term work
trips. On inflation, Labour will support struggling agricultural
and food production businesses to make, buy and sell more in
Britain, investing in jobs and skills and using the power of
public procurement. We will also look at using a windfall tax to
support farmers and food businesses.
10.27am
The Minister for Farming, Fisheries and Food ()
Thank you very much for your sensible approach to the heat, Dame
Angela. I am sure we all felt for the farmers who were harvesting
yesterday, in extraordinarily hot conditions. I know that many of
them will have harvested all night in order to have a slightly
more comfortable time. I would like to reassure the hon. Member
for Wirral West () that climate change is
a very large part of the discussion about leadership in the
Conservative party at the moment, and rightly so.
I, too, thank the hon. Member for City of Chester () for securing this
important debate, and indeed colleagues across the House for
their engagement. It is right to say at the outset that we all
condemn the Russian state’s outrageous attack on Ukraine, and
that we remain absolutely committed to standing with the people
of Ukraine as they defend their country and their democracy.
The Government are certainly not unaware of the situation in
Ukraine. I have talked to the hon. Member for Leeds North West
() about his own family links; my
daughter lived in Ukraine until December. We now have a Ukrainian
woman living with us at home, and five Ukrainians living in a
cottage on the farm. We were aware that war was coming, but I do
not know that we were aware of all the consequences or how severe
that war would be—a feeling that is probably global. I do not
think any of us were expecting Russia to behave quite in the way
that it has.
We are here today to discuss UK food security and the effect on
farmers. As the agriculture Minister, and having had to travel a
great deal in order to deal with the consequences of the war, I
feel very strongly that we are fortunate in the UK, as we have a
highly resilient food supply chain that is built on strong
domestic production as well as imports through very stable trade
routes. When I look around those international fora, I feel
blessed with the food supply that we have in the UK. That is not
at all to say that we are complacent; as the hon. Member for
Ceredigion () said, it is important, and our
food security depends on not being complacent about this. We are
not complacent, but we are very lucky.
Our food strategy sets a goal for the first time—a real win,
which I am pleased about—that the level of food security in this
country should be broadly where production is at the moment.
Currently, 74% of what we can grow here we do grow here, and
about 60% of what we eat altogether is grown here. That has been
stable for about the past 20 years and it is important that we
maintain that sort of level and always keep an eye on where our
trading routes are and their stability. I could not agree more
with hon. Members that the future should be more local and more
seasonal—that is an important point.
In summary, our food import dependency on the eastern European
region is low, and we do not expect any significant direct impact
on overall supply as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. We are
very much in touch with food and farming industry figures, who
remain confident that our food supply chain remains stable.
However, there is, of course, the matter of increasing costs. The
global spike in oil and gas prices has affected the prices of
agricultural commodities, which are always close to energy costs.
Gas prices were rising as we emerged from the pandemic anyway,
and the invasion of Ukraine has caused some additional turbulence
in international commodity markets—for example, the global prices
of wheat, maize and vegetable oil have all increased
substantially since the start of the war.
Rising food prices are dependent on a combination of factors,
including agrifood import prices, domestic agricultural
prices—which are, as the hon. Member for Ceredigion noted, quite
high in some cases, although the farmer is still struggling with
rising input costs as well—and domestic labour and manufacturing
costs. In the farming sector, increased costs are particularly
affecting fertiliser, animal feed and fuel, and that is
undoubtedly creating short-term pressures on cash flow for
farmers. To help, this month we are bringing forward half of this
year’s basic payment scheme payment as an advance injection of
cash to businesses. Subsidies will be paid in two instalments
each year for the remainder of the agricultural transition
period.
On the agricultural transition generally, unlike the NFU and
Opposition Members I simply cannot justify the current BPS
payments situation, whereby 50% of the payments go to the 10% of
largest landowners. I remain convinced that there are fairer and
better ways to support farmers. I reassure the House that the
yearly £3.7 billion pot of money available to support farmers
remains the same. Where we take from farmers in BPS
payments—which I am afraid I cannot justify, and in the long term
I am sure there are better ways to do it—we give back in other
schemes. I am pleased that farmers are voting with their
application forms: 52% of farmers are now involved in stewardship
schemes of some kind, which pay well, and farmers are now
applying to the sustainable farming incentive—the lowest tier of
our new schemes—which was rolled out gently a couple of weeks
ago, and significant numbers of applications are already being
approved.
On fertiliser, we have issued statutory guidance to provide
clarity to farmers on how they can use slurry and other manures
during the autumn and winter. Although global fertiliser prices
have risen, the UK has remained quite dynamic in sourcing
products, and CF Fertilisers continues to produce ammonium
nitrate at its plant in Billingham. We remain concerned about the
Ince plant, and remain in touch with the hon. Members for City of
Chester and for Ellesmere Port and Neston ().
I reassure the House that we are working closely with the
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, the Agricultural
Industries Confederation and the NFU on how best to establish
fertiliser price transparency. I have a large follow-up
roundtable on fertilisers tomorrow, as part of a long-term piece
of work we are doing with the industry to see what more we can do
and to assist the partial change—it is never going to be a
complete solution—from chemical fertiliser to bio-fertiliser. We
have also delayed the changes to the use of urea fertiliser until
spring 2023 and introduced new slurry storage grants.
We know that feed is a substantial input cost. On 1 June we
concluded the removal of section 232 tariffs, allowing us to
remove the 25% tariff on imports of US maize, which is a key
ingredient for animal feed. That went down well with the
sector.
I know that farmers need seasonal labour; we are the only sector
with an immigration carve-out in that regard. An extra 10,000
visas were announced in the Government’s food strategy, so this
year we have 40,000 seasonal visas. I have been working with the
contractors throughout the year and am aware that last year
around 80% of our seasonal agricultural workforce came from
Ukraine, Russia or Belarus. The operators who help us to source
the workforce are confident that they will be able to find the
workers they need for this season, and all the indications are
that those visas are being taken up.
As well as farmers, we work closely with the food and drink
manufacturing sector, through strong industry and
cross-Government relationships. Despite the ongoing supply chain
challenges in global inflation, our manufacturing sector has
maintained a stable food supply. Some specific commodities,
including sunflower oil and white fish, have been badly affected
by the invasion of Ukraine. The Government are supporting the
industry to manage those challenges.
We work closely with the Food Standards Agency to adopt a
pragmatic approach to enforcing the labelling rules so that
alternative oils can be used in place of sunflower oil in certain
processed goods without requiring changes to labels. On white
fish, we continue to engage with the seafood sector, including
the fish and chip shop industry, to monitor impacts and encourage
the adoption of alternative sources of supply other than
Russia.
It is very important that we maintain our sanctions against
Russia. We recognise that it is very difficult for some of our
sectors. Our global partners are feeling a far greater impact
from the war than we are. Russia is once again using food—or the
lack of it—directly as a weapon of war. It is not just a weapon
of war in Europe; it is a weapon that is firmly targeted at
Africa, where there is already starvation caused directly by
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant increase of the
global wheat price. There is now insufficient wheat for certain
areas of Africa to have enough to eat.
We are engaging with like-minded partners through multilateral
global forums, including the World Trade Organisation, the UN and
the G7, to build important consensus on keeping
markets—particularly the grain market—open to support global food
security. I have worked closely with the Ukrainian Agriculture
Minister, both at the UN global food summit and at various G7
meetings. I am pleased with one achievement we have been able to
make ourselves directly—in fact, it was paid for by DEFRA—which
is the establishment of a global grain sampling library. In
itself, it will not stop Russia stealing grain, but it will have
a chilling effect on those buying grain from Ukraine that is
clearly stolen.
There is a great deal more work that the world needs to do and I
reassure the House that as a Government we are determined to play
our part in that work globally. We are aware of the pressures
caused by the knock-on effects of this war. We continue to work
in partnership with farmers and food producers to ensure that the
UK is well equipped to respond to the global forces that continue
to drive the supply and price issues that we are facing.
10.40am
Thank you, Dame Angela, for calling me to speak again and for
your stewardship of this debate. I also thank the Minister for
her response and all hon. Members who have taken part. We have
heard contributions from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern
Ireland—from all parts of the UK—but they have all had similar
messages about the same types of issues that our farmers and food
producers are facing.
I accept the gentle admonishment from my good friend the hon.
Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey () about not putting the climate
crisis at the forefront of this debate. He is absolutely right
about that. One of the potato farmers in my area tells me that
when potatoes are growing and it gets too hot, they stop growing,
so the current temperatures will affect this year’s potato crop.
As I say, the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and I thank him
for that gentle kick up the backside.
The message from this debate is that we do not know how long this
war will go on for and we do not know how long its effects will
last, so we need to start planning now, because our farming
communities are certainly planning now.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered the effect of the war in Ukraine
on UK farming and food production.
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