DEFRA announces plans to make supply chains fairer

On 21 November the Secretary of State gave a speech at the CLA conference, addressing concerns about changes to inheritance tax relief on agricultural property and land. Following talks with sector representatives, he said he understood that the farmer protests on Tuesday 19 November were the result of "decades" of feeling "misunderstood, neglected and frankly disrespected."

Farmers often receive less than 1p for the food that they produce. Steve Reed said that he had listened to farmers' concerns on this issue, acknowledging "how little money for all the hard work they put into producing the food for the rest of us to enjoy." The answer, he explained, is to "make the supply chain fairer so food producers and growers are not forced to accept unfair contracts."

Although there are no plans to change the government’s stance on inheritance tax, Steve Reed promised that the government would:

• Make supply chains fairer: regulations will be laid out in spring for pig sector, with work fresh produce and eggs to follow
• Develop a 25-year farming roadmap that will be "farmer-led", to make farming more profitable
• Protect farmers from being undercut by low welfare and poor environmental standards in trade deals
• Support British farmers through public procurement with the Government’s own purchasing power
• Appoint a new Commissioner for the Tenant Farming Sector in England next spring
• Reform planning to make it quicker for farmers and landowners to diversify and create new income streams 
• Support innovation and agri-tech
• Get British food exports moving into the EU again through a new veterinary agreement

Steve Reed also mentioned other measures introduced by the government to help farmers, such as the Seasonal Worker visa route for 2025. The full speech can be found here.

Will White, Sustainable Farming Campaign Coordinator at Sustain, said,

"We welcome the government’s commitment to creating a fairer food supply chain, but progress must accelerate to deliver meaningful change. With sectoral codes for horticulture still years away, the government must urgently finalise and enforce sector-specific codes of practice—particularly for fresh produce—to ensure fair pricing and greater accountability across supply chains. Strengthening the role and powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator is equally essential to prevent unfair practices by supermarkets at the source. Alongside robust regulation, the government must invest in farmer-focused routes to market and adopt progressive procurement policies to give farmers more options and opportunities to bring their produce to market."