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 ability of the UK to substitute domestically produced (a) food and (b) fish for imports once the UK leaves the EU.

The Government is pursuing a unique and ambitious economic partnership that provides the greatest possible tariff free and frictionless trade with the EU.

There are sectors where the UK could, in the medium term, increase its production and processing of certain agricultural products to displace imports from the EU These include beef, pork, dairy, fruit and vegetables including through increased glasshouse production. The government will consider how best to support these sectors to take advantage of the opportunities of leaving the EU and becoming an independent country in control of our own agricultural policies in future.

The UK has a high degree of food security with access to a diverse range of sources of supply, including domestic production. The UK’s current production to supply ratio is 76% for indigenous-type foods and 60% for all foods. This has remained steady over the last decade and is not low in the context of the past 150 years.