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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has held with relevant stakeholders on reducing supply vulnerabilities of (a) tomatoes, (b) peppers, (c) cucumbers and (d) coffee.

We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables are predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced. These issues have been caused by unseasonal weather hampering production and harvest during December and January.

We are not aware of any supply vulnerability relating to coffee

While short term supplies of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers might be tight, overall, the supply chain is robust, and we are keeping the market under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.

The capability, levers, and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response. UK Food Security remains resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigate supply problems through alternative sourcing options.

The Government has taken steps to support energy costs, cut tariffs to reduce feed costs, improved avian influenza compensation schemes and taken a range of measures on fertilisers.

We work with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, to monitor and assess the current market situation. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UK AMMG).

I held an industry roundtable with supermarkets on Monday 27 February to explore their plans for a return to normal supplies and contingencies for dealing with these supply chain problems.

Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK food security report was published in December 2021.