- Location
- Cumbria
Quite shocking that we throw away more than the UK's total produciton:
Long-term trends
Home production of vegetables contributed to around 54% of the total UK supply in 2016, 4.6% lower than in 2015. "Over the last 20 years total production of vegetables remains fairly constant between 2.5 and three million tonnes," the report notes, though production was higher in the previous decade. Meanwhile, throughout this time, almost without exception, volumes of imported vegetables have increased steadily year-on-year and now stand at more than three times the figure 30 years ago.
Home fruit production, on the other hand, has been increasing steadily over the past 15 years after a prolonged period of decline, and although 2016’s figure of 777,000 tonnes represents a slight dip on the previous year it is still almost three times higher than 2003’s historic low of 271,000 tonnes.
At this low point, UK growers were supplying just 8.5% of the home market, and although 2016’s figure for fresh produce self-sufficiency slipped a little due to lower volumes, 17.2% is still twice that 2003 share.
Together these point to an overall figure of UK self-sufficiency of 36.5% — down two percentage points on 2015. So has the NFU’s campaigning to boost UK fresh produce self-sufficiency been in vain? Not entirely — since the publication of the initial Catalyst for Change report in 2012, a year in which UK self-sufficiency fell to a historic low of 32.7%, this figure rose in each of the three subsequent years. Returning to the days of more than 50% self-sufficiency, as was the case before 1995, still seems a distant prospect, however.
Long-term trends
Home production of vegetables contributed to around 54% of the total UK supply in 2016, 4.6% lower than in 2015. "Over the last 20 years total production of vegetables remains fairly constant between 2.5 and three million tonnes," the report notes, though production was higher in the previous decade. Meanwhile, throughout this time, almost without exception, volumes of imported vegetables have increased steadily year-on-year and now stand at more than three times the figure 30 years ago.
Home fruit production, on the other hand, has been increasing steadily over the past 15 years after a prolonged period of decline, and although 2016’s figure of 777,000 tonnes represents a slight dip on the previous year it is still almost three times higher than 2003’s historic low of 271,000 tonnes.
At this low point, UK growers were supplying just 8.5% of the home market, and although 2016’s figure for fresh produce self-sufficiency slipped a little due to lower volumes, 17.2% is still twice that 2003 share.
Together these point to an overall figure of UK self-sufficiency of 36.5% — down two percentage points on 2015. So has the NFU’s campaigning to boost UK fresh produce self-sufficiency been in vain? Not entirely — since the publication of the initial Catalyst for Change report in 2012, a year in which UK self-sufficiency fell to a historic low of 32.7%, this figure rose in each of the three subsequent years. Returning to the days of more than 50% self-sufficiency, as was the case before 1995, still seems a distant prospect, however.
