Therese Coffey was booed at a farmers’ conference this week after denying that “market failures” were behind UK food shortages.
The environment, food and rural affairs secretary ended up in a tense clash with the president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minette Batters, over the decline in egg production we saw in 2022.
And, to make matters worse, leading UK supermarkets including Tesco and Aldi have just announced they will be rationing purchases of various fruit and vegetables to consumers, such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
While debates are unfolding over the cause of the shortages (is it Brexit or poor weather conditions in Europe?), Batters put Coffey on the spot over the entire debacle on Wednesday, during an on-stage interview at the NFU event.
She began: “Front page of every newspaper, salad shortages, Asda rationing.”
“We can’t control the weather in Spain,” the environment secretary cut in.
While there has been bad weather in the areas where the UK secures most of its salad vegetables southern Europe and north Africa, the UK has also stopped producing so much itself because of the rocketing energy prices involved with growing such items out of season, like using greenhouses.
Coffey also denied that there was a problem with the UK’s market, claiming: ″We’re not necessarily seeing market failure.”
Batters hit back: “We saw a market failure with pigs and poultry.”
″I’m not sure we’ve seen a market failure with poultry,” the minister said.
″We had a billion less eggs in 2022 compared to 2019.”
Farmers cut egg production because costs were soaring, meaning there were fewer eggs in the shops.
Bizarrely, Coffey replied: “That’s not necessarily a market failure.”
Batters persisted: “We’ve lost businesses.”
″Hey! I’m not denying that people have chosen potentially not to restock on certain things,” Coffey claimed.
But Batters insisted that there was a market failure due to high costs and avian flu – so Coffey repeated: “There is not a market failure, Minette.”
This was then followed by some unflattering booing from the audience.
Batters has called for the government to weigh in and support producers through energy bills, therefore encouraging more home-grown produce.
But the government rebuffed this call for help, claiming this would “increase costs for other bill payers, including households”.
Meanwhile, farmers have also accused ministers of just ignoring how disrupted supply chains are – particularly Coffey.
After their on-stage clash, Batters reportedly said later that she “took real exception to the secretary of state’s denial”.
The managing director of fruit and arable growers Hugh Lowe Farms in Kent, Marion Regan, also said at the NFU event that Coffey had just “dismissed the empty shelves”.
Regan cast doubt on the environment secretary’s understanding of the “challenges” facing the sector, and the wider costs.