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91% Of Food Leaders Say UK System Risk Is Rising — FPC Says The Answer Is A Resilient, Global Supply Chain

  • 11 minutes ago
  • 3 min read

New research has confirmed what the fresh produce sector has been warning for months: the risks facing Britain's food system are mounting, and government policy is not keeping pace.



IGD's first resilience survey, part of its third annual report Thriving in a Volatile World, found that 91% of food industry leaders and academics believe the risks facing the UK food system have increased over the past year.


Geopolitics topped the list of threats over the next five years, followed by climate change, water pressures and challenges facing agriculture — with the economics of the food system, labour and skills, animal disease, cyber-security, biodiversity loss and supply chain visibility close behind. Every single respondent said government policy had failed to strengthen the food system's resilience over the past twelve months.


IGD warned that while geopolitics scored highest overall, climate change is likely to pose the greatest long-term threat, because it intensifies everything else on the list — water scarcity, agricultural disruption and biodiversity loss among them.


IGD senior resilience manager Kathryn Reynolds said: "The risks facing the food system are intensifying, and building resilience has become a shared priority across all sectors at a fast rate. For food businesses, reacting to disruption is no longer enough.


"Organisations must anticipate change, invest in capability and build supply chains that can withstand shocks, adapt quickly and thrive in a rapidly changing world."


A supply chain built to withstand shocks — not shrink from them


For the Fresh Produce Consortium, the findings are a stark validation of the case it has been making all year: that Britain's food security depends on maintaining a diverse, global supply base — not narrowing it.

"This survey puts a number on something our members have felt for a long time. When nine out of ten of the people running our food system say the risks are rising, and every single one of them says government policy hasn't kept up, that's not a warning — it's a verdict. Britain's fresh produce supply already spans the globe for good reason: no single region, climate or trade relationship can carry that risk alone. The answer to a more volatile world isn't to narrow our supply base, it's to protect the breadth of it — a resilient EU trading relationship sitting alongside strong Rest of World sourcing. That's exactly what our UK-EU Reset Action Pack and chefs' petition are both pushing government to recognise, before the next shock makes the decision for us." — Nigel Jenney, Chief Executive, Fresh Produce Consortium 

FPC has spent 2026 pressing government on both fronts highlighted by IGD's survey — geopolitical exposure and policy inertia. Its UK-EU Reset Action Pack gives MPs and industry a ready-made, ten-minute route to write directly to their MP about the compliance costs and friction still facing fresh produce trade with the EU. Its companion campaign, "One Squeeze Too Far," has already gathered over 1,350 signatures from chefs and hospitality professionals warning that further disruption to the supply chain will hit kitchens and consumers alike.


Both campaigns now sit together on FPC's new campaign hub, freshproduceaction.co.uk, alongside media coverage tracking the growing evidence for reform.


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