The price of food including pork is likely to rise significantly as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a UK environment minister has warned.
Victoria Prentis, the Defra minister responsible for farming, also suggested Britons may want to stop buying Russian white fish, which makes up about a third of the volume consumed in the UK.
Prentis warned that British people would have to become more willing to pay premium prices for quality food produced domestically.
Speaking at the launch of the Conservative Environment Network’s Green Albion essay collection, she said: “I’ve been having really important meetings with the fishing industry. Thirty per cent of our white fish, for example, is imported from Russia. Get real, guys.”
The minister told the Guardian further sanctions were being considered that could affect the fishing industry, but suggested consumers boycott the Russian fish. She said: “For now, do we really want to be buying Russian fish?”
Prior to the invasion, Prentis had been mostly focused on the cost of living crisis as well as the shift to more environmentally friendly farming, implementing the environmental land management schemes (Elms) which would have farmers paid subsidies for improving biodiversity and nature on their land.
However, she has found herself dealing with potential supply-chain failures as a result of the war. “I am going to dial down the optimism because we are in the middle of the most extraordinary series of world events,” she said.
As an example of how the events in Europe could drive up prices, the minister said: “I’ve been talking to the pig industry – a very, very difficult supply chain at all levels – are we prepared to buy more British high-welfare pigs? We will have to pay more.”
She said that while environmental policies were still a priority, “we need to make sure that the policy we’re making at every stage is correct to the stage we’re in. And frankly the stage for this week is completely different from the stage we were in last week.”
There are fears of a wheat crisis on the continent, as Russia and Ukraine account for 14% of global wheat production, ranking first and fifth, respectively. The countries together account for nearly 30% of global wheat exports.
Prentis has been meeting her counterparts in Europe to discuss this. She said: “I am so grateful that in this country we grow 88% of the wheat we eat. I met the Albanian foreign minister earlier this week, who imports 44% of her wheat – in a very poor country – from Ukraine. We are in a very fortunate position in many ways.”
Another battle Prentis has been fighting is with her Conservative colleagues who have criticised the Elms scheme. Some of her critics argue that farmers should be given more subsidies for producing food rather than solely for environmental goods.
The Conservative MP Neil Parish, who chairs the environment select committee, recently said: “There is an issue of food security, because Ukraine is the breadbasket of the world, as is the western part of Russia: I have visited Bryansk in the past and I remember that the one thing I wanted to bring home with me was the soil. I have never seen such beautiful soil in my life. It can grow absolutely everything.
“As we change agricultural policy, we need to protect the environment but we need food. There is not enough food in the Agriculture Act.”
Prentis said of her critics: “I really feel that we’ve got to stop viewing ourselves as environmentalists or farmers and there being any sort of boundary between the two.
“Quite frankly, it really pisses me off that so many of us are onboard with this programme and we are going in one direction but that we are having these ridiculous arguments about which bit [of funding] goes where in the programme.”
