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 impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on the UK's food supply and security.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain that has coped well in responding to unprecedented challenges.

Our food import dependency on the Eastern Europe region is very low. We do not expect any significant direct impact on overall UK food supply as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. Food imports from Ukraine and Russia comprise a relatively small amount of cereals and oilseeds - such as wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower oil - and vodka. We have strong domestic production on many of the same products. We speak regularly with food industry figures, who remain confident in the food supply chain.

Food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour, exchange rates and manufacturing costs. The war in Ukraine is another factor which will have an impact on food prices. We are working with major food retailers to understand the effect on individual industries and supply chains in Defra’s sectors, and any resulting impacts on price.