Eustice adopts wait-and-see-stance to 2023 growing season

Defra secretary George Eustice says the government is “giving some thought” to next year’s UK growing season, in response to the war in Ukraine which has shocked the global food system.

There are mounting fears about food supplies for 2023 in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact this is having on global markets, including soaring input costs that are wiping out any benefits from higher commodity prices and crippling businesses.

See also: NFU chief accuses Eustice of ‘living in a parallel universe’

Speaking at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) conference in London on Tuesday (22 March), Mr Eustice said current government assessments were that for the UK the impact of the war would be on prices, rather than supply – with some exceptions.

“It is the case that a significant amount of our sunflower oil has come from Ukraine,” he told the conference.

“But when you have the kind of market disruption that we are seeing, and a shock to world markets as a result of this terrible invasion, the single most important thing that the rest of the world can do is keep markets open.”

Mr Eustice said there were about 200m tonnes of wheat in stores around the world, and that must be able to move to where it is needed.

‘Normality’

After his speech, the Defra secretary told journalists: “A lot can happen in the months ahead. What we hope will happen is [Russian president Vladimir] Putin will abandon this horrific invasion of Ukraine and things will settle back to some normality.

“We are giving some thought to the next growing season.

“There will be a decision they [farmers] will make, obviously later in the year, about whether to sow for the following winter and that will be largely dictated by what they judge their input costs to be, and what price they expect to get for their wheat.

“It is too early to make those judgments at the moment, but it is certainly something we are working on.”

Mr Eustice said the government established a group in January to assess the impact the Ukraine crisis would have on the food and drink industry, and this work was ongoing across departments.

“We will emerge from this crisis with a renewed focus on our food security, the importance of global food security and our national resilience as well,” he said.

Frustration

But Labour’s shadow Defra secretary, Jim McMahon, told the FDF conference he was frustrated by a lack of joined-up thinking within government, and threw his support behind FDF’s call for a national food security council.

FDF chief executive Karen Betts said: “The UK’s much-prized food security and resilience must be fiercely guarded. We would like to see a national food security council to work alongside our farm-to-fork industry, to help us respond collectively in real time to supply chain impacts.”

Mr Eustice said the government’s eagerly awaited food strategy would address food security and the importance of domestic production.