Farmers are being left to carry the financial risk of an increasingly volatile food supply chain while retailers and manufacturers chase short-term sourcing fixes, according to a memo from anonymous senior professionals at major UK food producers, manufacturers and retailers, Farmers Weekly reports.
The memo, co-ordinated by the non-profit Inside Track and addressed to investors, owners, bondholders and creditors, says extreme weather, biodiversity loss and soil degradation are already cutting yields, quality and reliability of supply. Companies are responding by switching ingredients or sourcing regions rather than investing in their supply chains, it says, and "more complex supply chains and lower yields mean higher costs - at present these are being passed down to suppliers and farmers."
The group says farmers need long-term, reliable income to invest in adaptation, questions whether contract lengths and pricing let them keep their capacity, and warns that dropping suppliers after weather damage can leave farms unable to recover. It also warns of a shift towards lower-welfare imported meat; sources told Farmers Weekly that companies which promoted British meat are increasingly looking at cheaper imports.
"Our insiders tell us that boards are neither asking the right questions to understand the risk the industry is facing nor allocating the time, energy or budget to materially reduce that risk," said Ana Cuddeford, head of investor engagement at Inside Track.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said farmers carry "a growing and disproportionate share of the risk," particularly in England, where direct government support has all but disappeared. Nan Jones of the British Meat Processors Association said resilience cannot just mean changing where food comes from, and Professor Tim Lang of City St George's, University of London, said the post-war model of intensification was "fraying".
The memo says too little investment in resilience could mean less choice, higher food prices, more competition for land and water, and farmers writing off whole crops or herds.
Source: Farmers Weekly
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