Support for British food – but does this include fish?

Call from NFFO to extend pledge to ‘buy British’ to UK-caught seafood

Environment minister Steve Reed gave a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference last week – after braving a host of protesters outside – where he outlined a government commitment to ensure that ‘a fair share’ of the £5bn a year of public money spent procuring food, such as for school dinners and catering for the armed forces – would be on ‘British food’.

In a speech where he yet again repeated the government position that ‘food security is national security’, he also recommitted to the Labour Party election promise that 50% of food provided in the UK’s prisons, hospitals and army bases would be ‘local or produced to high environmental standards’.

UK food security policy, he said, would be based on three core strands: producers should be recognised as ‘businesses that need to turn a decent profit’, policies should make it easier to do business and to diversify, and it should be recognised that ‘nature is vital to food production, not in competition with it’.

As would be expected at a farming conference, the minister also outlined the huge amounts of financial support available to the farming industry – a figure of £5bn over the next two years ‘to help all farmers – tenants, commoners and landowners – transition to more nature-friendly farming methods’.

Hardly surprisingly, fishing was not mentioned during his speech – but applying his words to all primary food producers, not just those who work on land, is a not unreasonable leap, and would suggest a significant reset for the UK’s fishing industry.

Speaking after the speech, Mike Cohen, chief executive of the NFFO, said: “The fishing industry has yet to see anything concrete arising from the government’s early promises to prioritise growth. Including fishers just as much as farmers in this drive for public procurement to ‘buy British’ would be a good place to start.

“It is exactly the sort of measure that the national fishing strategy that the NFFO has called for should include. It would support British fishers commercially, without increasing pressure on stocks, rather than leaving us at the mercy of a market skewed by low wages and poor welfare standards overseas.

“The last annual quota negotiations were business as usual, and we have yet to hear whether this government will be any more sensible than its predecessor on marine spatial planning. Now would be an excellent time for the fisheries minister to make good on his promise to do things differently, and give us some good news.”

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.

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