Led by NFU Sustainability Group Lead Jack Watts, the roundtable recognised the need of showcasing to the government the valuable role of the out of home sector in building a resilience and sustainable food and drink industry.
The group agreed that to ensure the UK hospitality supply chain is robust, collaborative and future ready, all parties must support the greater need for conversations around partnership and sustainability both within government and the commercial supply chain.聽
Optimising consumer demand for British produce
The meeting coincided with research findings from Red Tractor stating that 94% of UK consumers trust food produced in the UK more than in other countries around the world.鈥��
This provides an opportunity for the supply chain, as hospitality businesses can optimise this relationship to drive growth.
This opportunity also needs to be recognised by farmers and growers given Out of Home represents over 50% of the consumer market and leads taste, flavours and trends in food.
However, with a large market with complex supply chains, more conversations must happen to aid greater relationships with farmers and growers and hospitality businesses.聽
Building partnerships
With current business confidence low, the roundtable provided an important message to government on the need for clear political leadership and inclusion within the forthcoming food strategy.
Commenting on the relationship between operators and producers, NFU Sustainability Group Lead Jack Watts said: 鈥淔oodservice providers need to have confidence in British farming and be able to make sustainable procurement decisions based on a resilient food system, particularly given challenges around food inflation, climate change and current geopolitical.
鈥淭oday provides an opportunity to build partnerships between operators and producers and enable attendees to take the farming message back to their organisations.鈥�
Organisations at the roundtable included:鈥�
- AHDB
- CGA Insights & Planet Peach
- UK Hospitality
- Nandos
- NFU
- Prestige Purchasing
- Red Tractor
- School of Sustainable Food & Farming
- Sysco
- The Craft Guild of Chefs
