British Bean Production Presents £586m Growth Opportunity

The UK has a significant opportunity to expand domestic bean and pulse production, but unlocking that potential will require coordinated action across farming, processing, markets, and policy, according to a new report from The Food Foundation.

While the UK already produces around 800,000 tonnes of beans annually, most are exported or used as animal feed. 

At the same time, the country imports around 500,000 tonnes of beans each year, representing what The Food Foundation estimates is a potential £586 million annual opportunity for UK producers.

“Despite the key role beans and pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas and other legumes) can play in production practices and diets that are both healthy and sustainable, we neither consume nor produce as many as we could in the UK, with huge potential to boost both production and consumption and better connect the two,” the independent charity stated.

The report highlights a fundamental disconnect between what British producers grow and what consumers eat, pointing out that the UK is “falling short” on both production and consumption. 

The Food Foundation claims evidence shows that there is “a need to incentivise growers and develop new markets and supply chains” for the beans and pulses that the UK currently grows.

For instance, although the UK is the world’s third-largest producer of faba beans, these are not a staple of the British diet. 

Instead, the country imports many of the beans consumed domestically, including haricot beans used in baked beans.

Consumption also remains low. According to the briefing, two thirds of people in the UK eat less than one portion of beans and pulses per week, despite consumption needing to increase almost seven-fold to align with the planetary health diet.

Barriers To Production

The report identifies a range of barriers limiting domestic production. 

Farmers face “high agronomic risk” driven by increasingly variable weather, reduced access to agricultural inputs, underinvestment in breeding and agronomy, and limited knowledge exchange.

Market challenges add further pressure, with low and volatile prices, tight buyer specifications for food-grade beans and pulses, limited processing capacity, and the need for substantial price premiums to offset the risks associated with growing novel crops.

The briefing also points to policy challenges, arguing that current government stewardship schemes, including the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), can discourage the planting of harvestable legumes as break crops. 

It also highlights the absence of national protein or horticulture strategies to provide coordinated support for the sector.

Significant Opportunities 

Despite these obstacles, the report identifies significant “exciting opportunities” to raise the production of beans, pulses, and other legumes in the UK. 

It says there is strong appetite across stakeholder groups to expand production through measures including building consumer demand, developing end markets, increasing investment in primary and secondary processing, boosting research and development, improving farmer knowledge exchange, and expanding access to agricultural inputs.

The authors also note that while there is growing research activity across academia, industry and the third sector, relatively few initiatives are addressing the links between production and consumption throughout the supply chain and wider value chain.

Alongside wider production opportunities, meanwhile, the report highlights the role that beans and legumes can play in regenerative agriculture. 

Due to their natural nitrogen-fixing properties, they can play a role in reducing reliance on artificial fertilisers, improving soil health, and lowering production costs. 

Win-Win For Health, Climate & Nature

With the right infrastructure and incentives, The Food Foundation concludes that the UK could see more beans grown, processed, and eaten closer to home, delivering economic, environmental, and health benefits. 

It identifies public sector procurement as a key mechanism for stimulating demand by increasing the amount of UK-grown beans served in public settings.

Alongside encouraging consumption, the report argues that greater support is needed for growers by addressing production-focused challenges and creating viable markets for crops already grown domestically. 

It identifies the development of new supply chains for both whole beans and pulses, alongside pulse-based ingredients for food manufacturing and composite products, as a significant opportunity to increase domestic production.

The report also points to the government’s food strategy and its commitment to produce a Horticulture Sector Growth Plan as important opportunities to strengthen support for UK bean growers.

The briefing forms part of The Food Foundation’s National Lottery-funded Bang in Some Beans campaign, which aims to double bean consumption in the UK by 2028.

To inform the report, The Food Foundation conducted desk-based research and interviewed 18 experts between October 2025 and January 2026, including farmers and growers, business owners, researchers, trade unions and associations, and civil servants.

Read the full report here.