For many products seasonality is less marked. For example, tomatoes can be produced year-round, including in greenhouses in the UK but domestic production capacity is far below total demand and is supplemented throughout the year by imports. Trends Defra currently supports a long-term research platform for the genetic improvement of arable crops and fresh produce. These Genetic Improvement Networks ( GINs) aim to improve the productivity, sustainability, resilience, and nutritional quality of UK crops, including wheat, oilseed rape, leafy vegetables, and pulses. This includes significant research to enhance resilience to climate change risks such as drought and heat stress. Overall resilience is supported by trading with a variety of external partners and the UK imports and exports flexibly as production and prices dictate. Trends Read more on how to import timber, wood products or bark. Register and pre-notify your goods on the relevant import IT system If you import any regulated and notifiable goods on the high-priority goods list ( ODT, 12.6 KB), follow the rules for high-priority goods. WRAP’s research in 2020 provided important insights into was how well UK households responded to the pandemic by adopting positive food management behaviours. The decline in food waste in 2020 indicates how important it is to foster and maintain behavioural change to reduce food waste in the long-term. The gradual increase in food waste observed in 2021 could be an indication that returning to a pre-pandemic lifestyle, where people spend more time outside the house and experience higher levels of time pressure, has a negative influence on behaviours and waste levels.

Read more on how to export plants and plant products to the EU. Importing from non- EU countries to Great Britain via the EUEgg production has also been consistent, meeting between 89% and 98% of domestic demand and increasing substantially over the last decade, despite a significant move to free range methods, which now make up about half of production. It is likely that a slight dip in 2020 was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic reducing demand from hospitality and canteens. Although production has increased slightly, laying fowl numbers have decreased from 53 million in 1984 to 40 million in 2020, with the main reduction taking place in the 1980s and 1990s. Trends

After your consignment passes plant health controls, you can move it on. You will need a UK plant passport for movement of goods from the first place of destination if: Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme 2018 to 2021, Developed from Joanna Jones, Edward Pope, Debbie Hemming, Freya Garry, James Bacon and Jemma Davie, ‘Future climate risk to UK agriculture from compound events’, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212096321000115. ↩ If you import fruit and vegetables into Great Britain from a non-EU country and a proportion of your consignment is re-exported to the EU, your consignment needs to undergo both import and export processes. Importing green bananas from the EU and non-EU countries to Great BritainThe UK is largely self-sufficient in production of grains, producing over 100% of domestic consumption of oats and barley and over 90% of wheat. Average yields over recent decades have been broadly stable but fluctuate from year to year as a result of better or worse weather. Increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather as a result of climate change is likely to exacerbate these fluctuations. Wheat yields in 2020 were the lowest since 1981 due to of unusually bad weather. However, preliminary data indicates they have since increased in 2021. This guide explains what you need to do when some or all plant health controls start to apply to your consignments. Longer growing seasons and warmer temperatures may have some positive effects for particular crops and regions, but overall risk magnitude is assessed to increase from medium at present to high in future. Increased climate exposure (including heat stress, drought risk, and wetness-related risks) is modifying productive capacity and will continue to do so in future in line with the degrees of warming experienced. The severity of risk to agriculture from climate change could further increase if mitigation efforts are ineffective in preventing non-linear threshold effects and ‘tipping points’ in global systems.

Rainfall is the largest source of water for growing grass and crops in the UK. Changes in rainfall patterns can impact water storage, plant productivity, and cause soil erosion and waterlogging. Using data from UKCP18, the Met Office looked at how annual rainfall across the UK may change in the future. As highlighted in the figure below, by 2051 to 2070 average 12-month rainfall accumulations are projected to increase across North West England, Scotland, and coastal regions around Wales. In contrast, rainfall accumulations across the rest of England and Wales are projected to decrease. Annual rainfall variability is projected to increase with greater potential for both extremely high and low national rainfall totals. South-central England and North West Scotland are projected to experience the greatest annual rainfall variability, which may require changes in water management. Someone in the inspecting plant health authority must sign the phytosanitary certificate within the same 14-day period.Production of barley and oats has been fairly stable, with wheat (primarily a winter-grown crop) a little more volatile depending on weather patterns during planting and growing, as seen in 2020. At 9.6 million tonnes, wheat production was its lowest since 1981 due to unusually poor weather conditions at critical points of crop production: very wet weather for preparing the soil and sowing, too dry in the spring when the crops should have established, and bad weather for harvesting. This appears to be an outlier compared to recent years, and provisional results for 2021 indicate a return to the 5-year average; however, climate change is projected to increase the frequency of such events. Barley production on the other hand was 1 million tonnes higher than the 2015 to 2019 average. The landscape of UK imports and domestic production is currently in a state of change after leaving the European Union, the UK’s largest trading partner in agri-food. The impact of the UK’s new trading relationship is not yet visible in data. Domestic production may also change in future with the removal of subsidies managed through the European Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP) and through the planned introduction of new environmental land management schemes in parts of the UK.

The UK has a commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 and the Courtauld Commitment 2030 to reduce per capita food system waste by 50% by 2030 (alongside targets on greenhouse gas emissions and water use). [footnote 9] Compared to the 2007 baseline, total per capita food waste had reduced by 20% by 2018, and 27% if ‘inedible parts’ are excluded. Climate change could have an impact, with extreme weather events, pests, diseases, and warmer temperatures all risks for increased food waste in production and the supply chain, unless adaptations are put in place. Indicator 2.2.3 Household food waste Headlines The EU plant passport is no longer recognised as an official label in Great Britain. What happens if your consignment fails plant health controlsFor details of what plant material is subject to plant health controls see the WRAP, ‘The Courtauld Commitment 2030’, https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink/initiatives/courtauld-commitment. ↩ Pig and poultry production has increased substantially over the last 12 years, which may reflect higher demand for cheaper meats in more economically challenging times, and greater efficiency in poultry production. Total head count for pigs in June has reduced from 7.8 million in 1980 to 5.1 million in 2020, with a steep decrease of over 3 million between 1998 and 2003; annual sales are around 10 million head. Poultry population for meat in June has doubled from 60 million in 1984 to about 120 million in 2020, with over 1 billion birds sold for meat. The UK has a productive agricultural sector and a domestic agri-food manufacturing industry that produces food to high standards. The amounts and types of food produced are driven by market forces and consumer demand for goods, rather than by assessment of overall quantity of food or of self-sufficiency. Many factors affect the output of domestic production, including: