An Overview of the Farming Industry in the Uk

AN OVERVIEW OF THE FARMING INDUSTRY IN THE UK

Over the last years, the production of food in the UK has been reduced considerably, making that most of fresh food products like fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products have to be imported from overseas countries. The main reason is that the UK’s economy is more focused in activities that produce more growth for the economy, for example: restaurants, hotels and banking. However, the farming sector has become less important for the local economy and it has made that farmers do not use all their potential to produce quality food in the UK.

Farming has been one of the areas with most support from the EU, for that reason was created the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) what is a support for direct farm payments and rural development. Nowadays, the budget designated is more than 40% of the EU total annual budget but this has not been always like that, this budget has been decreased through the years. For example, it was 87% in 1970 when farming had a higher support (BBC, 2013). However, the inequality between EU states in relation with the amounts of food produced and imported is due to the distribution of this budget, because each country receives a different amount. For example, in 2013 the percentages of distribution were as follow, France (16,6%), Spain (12,1%), Germany (11,4%), Italy (10,3%) and UK (7,1%) (Massot, 2015).

Government should be aware that if farming were reactivated, there would be many benefits for the country, such as; improvement of nation’s health, reducing of food amounts imported, reducing unemployment rates on farming and this will help to protect the environment. In addition, farmers need that customers support national farming by preferring local items instead of foreign products, for example in restaurants and supermarkets.

The UK produces only the 54% of food consumed in the country, the rest of the food is imported, 27% from EU, 4% from Africa, Asia, North America, South America respectively, 2% from other countries of Europe and 1% from Australasia (UK Government, 2015). The biggest suppliers are Netherlands (5.9%), Spain (5.0%), France (3.5%), Irish Republic and Germany (2.9% each) (Chalabi, 2013). All the importation of food and drinks in the UK have a cost around £37.6 billion (Russell, 2013).

Of the total food consumed in the UK, the country production percentages are 83% of meat, 82% of dairy products and eggs, and 23% of fruit and vegetables (Chalabi, 2013). This means most of meat and dairy products are produced in the country, however, the country has to import large quantities of fruit and vegetables.

Owen Paterson, ex-secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, believes that a quarter of the food imported should be produced in the country. By doing this, the amount of food imported could be reduced, because around