The UK Government has released the United Kingdom Food Security Report 2024, highlighting critical insights into the nation’s ability to ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and sufficient food. This comprehensive report, updated biennially, evaluates the food system’s resilience in the context of challenges such as climate change, international trade dynamics, and economic pressures.
Overall the report finds that the UK food supply chain demonstrated robust adaptability amid significant challenges and geopolitical tensions. Stressors, however, underscored the importance of diverse supply chains and domestic production.
The report emphasises the increasing impact of climate change on agriculture and food production. Extreme weather events, both domestically and globally, pose risks to crop yields and food availability. The need for sustainable practices to mitigate these risks is a focal point.
As a net importer of food, the UK relies heavily on international trade for its supply. The report notes that while this ensures access to diverse food products, it also necessitates strategies to manage vulnerabilities, such as supply chain disruptions or trade restrictions.
Food affordability remains a critical issue for households, particularly amid rising costs. Efforts to address food insecurity and support lower-income families are highlighted as essential to maintaining societal well-being.
The report finds that advances in agricultural technology and innovation are pivotal to addressing long-term food security challenges. From improving crop resilience to reducing food waste, technological progress offers significant potential benefits.
To enhance food security the government plans to:
- Promote sustainable agricultural practices to balance production with environmental stewardship
- Diversify supply sources to minimise risks associated with trade dependencies
- Support research and development in food technologies
- Strengthen programs to assist households facing food insecurity
While there are many definitions of food security, the United Kingdom Food Security Report uses the widely used 1996 World Food Summit definition which defines food security in broad terms as: “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
In more detail
Global Food Availability
- The percentage of key global cereals, soybeans and meats traded by volume remains broadly stable with minimal fluctuations between 2021/22 and 2024/25, with the largest changes a 2.4 percentage point (pp) decrease in pigmeat, 1.3pp decrease in maize and 1.7pp increase in the share of beef and veal production traded across this period.
- The number of undernourished people around the world is increasing due to poverty, conflict, climate change as well as issues in food distribution, other growing uses for commodities, and caloric efficiency. This continues a recent trend running counter to a longer-term decrease from 2005 to 2017. The number of people facing undernourishment has increased since 2017 from 541 million to 733 million in 2023 (see Indicator 1.4.1 Global food and nutrition security).
- Climate change, nature loss and water insecurity pose significant risks to the ability of global food production to meet demand over the longer term.
- Between 2015 and 2019 the amount of land globally which was reported as being degraded increased by 4.2 pp, from 11.3% to 15.5%.
UK Food Supply Sources
- The UK’s overall balance of trade and production is broadly stable. The UK continues to source food from domestic production and trade at around an overall 60:40 ratio.
- The production-to-supply ratio was at 62% for all food and 75% for indigenous foods (meaning those that can be grown in the UK) in 2023, showing a small increase from 61% and 74% in 2021.
- Extreme weather events continue to have a significant effect on domestic production, particularly arable crops, fruit and vegetables. Production levels fluctuate each year due to changes in both planted area and yields, with weather conditions having a significant influence among other factors. In 2019 UK cereal production (25.5mt) was the highest this century, whereas in 2020 production (19.0mt) was the second lowest largely due to bad weather. The published first estimate of the 2024 English cereal and oilseed harvest shows a 22% decrease (around 2.8mt) in harvested wheat from 2023.
- The UK continues to be highly dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruit, vegetables and seafood, which are significant sources of micronutrients for consumers. Domestic production of fresh fruit increased slightly from 15% of total UK supply in 2021 to 16% in 2023.
- Long term decline in the UK’s natural capital is a pressing risk to UK food production. Both productivity and sustainability of food production rely on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, healthy soil and clean water. However, the decline in natural capital is slowing and levelling against some key indicators. The all-species indicator in England shows a decline in abundance to just under 70% of the 1970 value. This trend levels around the year 2000 and over the past 5 years, fluctuations in the all-species indicator are not considered to represent meaningful change.
Food Supply Chain Resilience
- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a spike in input costs such as energy and fertiliser. This was a major development of the period between 2021 and 2024, having an effect across the food supply chain. The shock led to business uncertainty and the highest food inflation spike for consumers in 45 years. While the impacts were global, it showed the UK’s and the rest of Europe’s vulnerability to food inflation from high energy prices and the effect of other cost pressures in the system. UK food inflation was among the highest of the G7 countries in 2023. At no point in the last three years has the UK population faced shortages of food items for a sustained period, demonstrating a continued resilience in providing food availability through shocks.
- Fertiliser costs for UK farms rose from £1.5 billion in 2021 to £2 billion in 2022, before dropping to £1.4 billion in 2023. These changes contrast with a stable level of cost in the decade up to 2020. Similarly, electricity and gas prices climbed far surpassing prices in the period 2014 to 2020, doubling for electricity and nearly tripling for gas (electricity 100%, gas 187%) significantly from mid-2022.
- Agri-food sector labour shortages continue and are compounded by significantly more restrictive access to EU labour since freedom of movement with the EU ended in 2021.
- Between 2021 and 2023, the workforce in the food sector in Great Britain increased from 4.04 million to 4.38 million, showing a steady upward trend. However, this does not show shortages in labour and skills in key areas of the UK’s food supply chain such as the seafood sector and the veterinary profession.
Household Food Security
- While a large majority of households in the UK continue to be food secure, there has been a notable decrease in food secure households (defined as access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life) which has coincided with increased financial pressures to household budgets from both high general inflation and high food inflation. The proportion of food secure households declined from 92% in financial year ending (FYE) 2020 to 90% in FYE 2023.
Consumer Confidence and Food Safety
- The results of UK consumer surveys indicate that the levels of trust in Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) have remained relatively high.
Read the UK Food Security Report 2024