Herbert: Ministers can’t conceal decade of decline in UK food production
10 August 2009
In response to the Government’s Food Security Assessment, published today, Conservative analysis of official figures reveals a decade of decline across whole swathes of UK food production, with over 36,000 hectares of planted land for fruit and vegetables lost under Labour.
The UK’s self-sufficiency in indigenous food has fallen by 9 per cent from 82 per cent in 1998 to 73 per cent in 2008 and the UK trade gap in food, feed and drink has widened by 52 per cent in real terms between 1998 and 2007 to £15.2 billion. Between 1997 and 2008 land for vegetable production by a quarter (24 per cent).
Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert said:
“The Government previously claimed that it was unnecessary to increase domestic food production, and under Labour Britain has become increasingly dependent on imports of food we could grow ourselves.
“It should be a strategic priority of government to increase self-sufficiency in food, yet the Government are refusing to take the steps to make this happen. They have increased the regulatory burden on British farmers; government departments continue to ignore British producers and procure foreign food, and Ministers refuse to introduce honest food labelling to benefit consumers and help support our domestic production.”