Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the equity of the distribution of additional costs in the UK food supply chain in the event of no deal on UK-EU trade relations at the end of the transition period.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain and the food industry is well-equipped to respond to disruption as was seen during the initial Covid-19 response earlier this year.

Defra Ministers and officials meet regularly with the Agri-food industry to support contingency planning by the industry. This includes working closely with those sectors who may be particularly affected by concurrent impacts of end transition disruption and Covid-19 impacts.

There are a number of factors which can affect consumer food prices, including agri-food import prices, domestic manufacturing costs and currency exchange rates. Many of these factors will continue to apply at the end of the transition period whatever the outcome of trade negotiations with the EU. Most food industry sectors are accustomed to fluctuations in supply chain costs, and this does not necessarily translate into consumer price rises.