Food: Prices
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of retail food price inflation since 2020 attributable to changes in trading arrangements with the EU.
Answered by Dame Angela Eagle
Consumer food prices are shaped by a variety of factors, such as agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. Several of these factors are affected by the UK's trading arrangements with other countries, including the EU. Any changes in food prices can reflect changes in one or more of these elements.
Although the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU allows zero tariffs and zero quota trade, leaving the EU Single Market and Customs Union had an impact on agri-food trade. Under the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), imported consignments of products of animal origin (POAO), and plant and plant products (P&PP), including from the EU, are subject to a range of border controls. Defra estimates the measures introduced through the BTOM would have a minimal impact on consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2 percentage points in total over a 3-year period.
The Government is working to agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement with the European Union to make agrifood trade with the UK’s biggest trading partner cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers.
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