Back British food or risk more empty shelves, warns NFU

UK government should back British food production to secure a home-grown supply of food or risk seeing more empty shelves in the nation’s supermarkets, a leading farming organisation warned recently amid acute shortages of eggs in the country.

The warning from National Farmers' Union (NFU) comes at a time when people are seeing empty egg shelves while fruit and veg growers are under massive pressure due to soaring energy costs and workforce shortages.

NFU president Minette Batters urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to honour commitments to support British farmers through the energy crisis.

“Shoppers up and down the country have for decades had a guaranteed supply of high-quality affordable food produced to some of the highest animal welfare, environmental and food safety standards in the world.

“That food is critical to our nation’s security and success. But British food is under threat.

“We have already seen the egg supply chain crippled under the pressure caused by these issues and I fear the country is sleepwalking into further food supply crises, with the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies in trouble," Batters said.

Other reports say the entire industry is facing a shortage of eggs for a number of reasons, including avian flu leading to a culling of flocks, producers cutting back on the amount they are producing and also leaving the industry due to increased costs.

To combat the egg shortage and to prevent empty shelves, supermarkets such as Asda and Morrisons have introduced a limit of two boxes of eggs per customer, Yahoo reported.

Confirming that the supermarket has introduced a temporary limit of two boxes per customer, a spokesperson for Asda said that the supermarket is working hard with suppliers to resolve the industry challenges.

“The past few years have shown the strength of our supply chains and we are adept at managing temporary shortages of products to ensure that there are options on our shelves for our customers," reports quoted the spokesperson as saying.