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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to help support farmers to redistribute their surplus food to food charities.

The Government supports a thriving, productive and efficient farming sector that prevents waste occurring in the first place. For instance, we are supporting investment in productivity-boosting equipment, technology and infrastructure through the Farming Investment Fund. This provides grants to farmers, foresters, and growers (including contractors to these sectors) that will help their businesses to prosper, while improving their productivity and enhancing the environment. At the recent Farm to Fork Summit we announced new reviews into fairness in the horticulture and egg supply chain building on what we have already got underway to improve transparency and contracts in the pork and dairy markets. We launched the review into the egg supply chain on 31 October 2023, and will launch a public consultation on horticulture in the coming weeks.

We acknowledge that more can be done to reduce food waste in the primary production stage. The ‘fair dealings’ powers contained in the Agriculture Act 2020 can be used to prevent these kinds of unfair trading practices where they occur, as we are aware that unreasonably late cancellations or specification changes can sometimes lead to produce being unharvested.

The Government works closely with businesses through our delivery partner the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to overcome any barriers to redistribution. This includes the development of guidance and best practice through a sector wide working group, and support for the Target Measure Act (TMA) approach to understanding and acting on food waste in supply chains, including the redistribution of any surplus should it arise and is supported by the National Farmers Union (NF8). Where the NFU stands on food waste – NFUonline.

Since 2018, Defra funding of nearly £13m has supported both large and small redistribution organisations across the country to increase their capability and capacity.

The total amount of food redistributed in the UK in 2022 was over 170,000 tonnes and a value of around £590 million, an increase of 133% since 2019.