Food: Wholesale Trade

(asked on 2nd October 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of a recent Federation of Wholesale Distributor’s survey which found that (a) 90 per cent of food and drink wholesalers surveyed are highly likely to make redundancies by the end of the year because of a 50 per cent to 70 per cent reduction in sales, (b) millions of pounds worth of stock not sold due to a loss in customers is close-to or has passed its best before date and (c) almost 60 per cent of wholesalers, which supply to critical public sector infrastructure such as schools, care homes and hospitals are at risk of collapse by the end of the year without urgent financial support; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Steve Barclay Portrait
Steve Barclay
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This question was answered on 12th October 2020

The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers are eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include:

  • The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help keep millions of people in employment;
  • £10,000 cash grants for all business properties in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief and Rural Rates Relief;
  • The Bounce Back Loan Scheme for small businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000, with no interest payments or fees for the first 12 months.

Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the recent Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.

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