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

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest assessment of the steps being taken to ensure there are no shortages of UK-produced food on supermarket shelves.

Defra is closely monitoring markets and supply chains to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures and is considering how government and industry can work together to mitigate them, in the short and longer term

Defra has requested weekly data from supermarkets on supplies of the foods affected to ensure we have the latest available data. Supermarkets are confident that supply will be back to normal by the end of this month.

On March 3^rd, Minister Spencer visited Thanet Earth to discuss the opportunities and challenges for growers within the sector. Defra has been engaging with primary producers and trade associations such as the British Growers Association, to assess potential risks to the supply of fruit and vegetables.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.

The Government Food Strategy sets out a plan to transform our food system to ensure it is fit for the future.

It aims to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities – such as horticulture and seafood.

We want people, at home and abroad, to be lining up to buy British.

This strategy will support that commitment; to see more locally sourced food, food producers to be able to take advantage of trade deals, consumers to be confident in the British food that they are buying in their local supermarket.