Food expert lambasts UK government, says food shortage due to ‘weird supermarket culture’

The food shortages that have occurred in Britain have been attributed to a "market failure" caused by the country's unusual supermarket culture, according to the government's food tsar. Some experts have criticised government officials for focusing on discussions with major food chains like Tesco instead of suppliers who are facing increased costs and contractual obligations with supermarkets, reported The Guardian. 

Henry Dimbleby, who co-founded the restaurant chain Leon and advised English ministers on food strategy, stated that Europe is not experiencing similar food shortage issues because they do not have the same cultural challenges. He said, “There’s just this weird supermarket culture. A weird competitive dynamic that’s emerged in the UK, and nowhere else in the world has it, and I don’t know why that is.”

Dimbleby criticises government's handling of his recommendations

Earlier, Dimbleby had expressed his dissatisfaction with the government's handling of his recommendations, claiming that it was not a proper strategy. He felt frustrated with the current situation where people were more concerned with trivial comments about turnips rather than addressing fundamental problems with the food system's structure.

“I find it quite frustrating that everyone is suddenly worried about a gap in vegetables in February, when there are much bigger structural issues that need to be resolved, and definitely the government on health has very explicitly gone backwards,” he said.

Dimbleby disagreed with the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, who denied that the recent shortages of eggs and vegetables was a “market failure”, reported The Guardian. He said, “This is a problem of market failure in the British food system. It’s going to get worse. The UK food system is, I think, unique – I don’t know another system where the supermarkets have these fixed-price contracts with suppliers. So, basically, you have no effective market. It’s a very difficult one for the government to solve, but it does need to be resolved.”

Dimbleby remarked that in the UK, supermarkets maintained stable lettuce prices regardless of whether there was a surplus or a shortage. As a result, farmers were unable to sell their entire crop when they had a surplus, nor did they receive any incentives to increase production during a shortage. He added, “If there’s bad weather across Europe, because there’s a scarcity, supermarkets put their prices up – but not in the UK. And therefore at the margin, the suppliers will supply to France, Germany, Ukraine.”