Report: £8bn of UK food imports threatened by worsening floods, droughts and heatwaves

Around £8bn-worth of food including bananas, rice and tea is imported to the UK from countries that are ill-prepared for increasingly extreme weather events they face from climate change, according to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

An analysis of government trade data published today by the think tank reveals £2bn-worth of food comes to the UK from just eight developing countries - Kenya, Brazil, Peru, Vietnam, India, Colombia, Belize, and Ivory Coast - all of which are among the most vulnerable to the worsening impacts of climate change.

Pakistan, the second-biggest source of UK rice imports, saw yields fall by up to a fifth in the aftermath of devastating floods in the country last year 2022, ECIU pointed out. Modelling by World Weather Attribution scientists suggested heavy rainfall in the country that led to the floods was made 50 per cent more intense due to human-driven climate change.

Moreover, tea-growing land in Kenya is diminishing as a result of prolonged hot, dry, periods and more unpredictable rainfall, while Vietnam's coffee production has been hit by both more extreme storms and more enduring heat, according to the ECIU. Cocoa production in Ivory Coast has also been hampered by rainy seasons changing, it said.

According to the Climate Change Committee a fifth of the UK's critical supply chains originate in areas of particular climate vulnerability - rising to half in food supply chains.

UK trade statistics also show that 16 per cent of food imports came directly from nations with "low climate readiness" last year, while recent ECIU analysis found that just over a quarter of food imported to the UK is under threat from heatwaves, wildfires and drought in the Mediterranean.

As a result, ECIU's head of international programmes Gareth Redmond-King warned the UK faced increasing risks to its food security from the changing climate worldwide. As a result, he said, more funding would be needed to help vulnerable nations on which the UK relies for much of its food imports to prepare and adapt to the climate challenges ahead.

"We can't grow rice or bananas in the UK, so when the countries we import from get hit by floods, droughts or heatwaves, yields go down and prices can go up," he said.

"The UK government is funding projects around the world to help food producers face these challenges with measures to, for example, reduce and reverse land degradation, support farmers to access markets, and to shift agriculture methods from subsistence to sustainability."

However, he stressed that adaptation efforts could only go so far towards alleviating the problem as "beyond certain temperatures there are limits to what we can do and some of these crops will simply fail", and therefore stressed the need for a simultaneous focus on decarbonising faster.

"Unless we get to net zero emissions, the weather worsens and these food imports can no longer be guaranteed as before," Redmond-King continued.

"To give ourselves the best chance of shoring up our food security, the UK needs to be a leader at the COP28 negotiations, encouraging faster emissions cuts from other states and providing support for struggling countries, but that only works if the UK is seen to be doing all it can at home and not slowing down."

Between 2011 and 2023, the UK is estimated to have provided £12.63bn in international climate finance to developing and climate vulnerable nations, 80 per cent of which has gone to funds or institutions that disburse finance from multiple nations, according to analysis by Carbon Brief.

Of the remaining 20 per cent, which the UK has allocated directly to developing nations, close to £400m has been distributed to Kenya, the UK's largest tea supplier and almost £150m to India, the UK's largest source of rice.

Meanwhile, close to £200m has also been shared between Colombia, the UK's largest supplier of bananas, and Brazil, the foremost market for soya, melons, and guavas, mangoes and mangosteens.

However, a number of the nations that supply the UK's top ten most vulnerable foods - including Belize, Ivory Coast and Peru - received no climate finance directly from the UK during the same period, ECIU pointed out today.

Dr Rihab Khalid, Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, said ECIU's analysis provided yet more clear evidence of how climate change profoundly impacts everyday life.

"The escalating impacts of climate change in developing countries not only threaten the lives and livelihoods within these countries but also have ripple effects to our food security in the UK," he said.

"If we want to protect those livelihoods overseas, and secure our food into the future, then Instead of cutting Official Development Assistance overseas, the UK would be far better moving beyond mere aid and work to invest more in adaptation and resilience in the countries worst affected. Without that, our evening cup of tea and favourites like biryani, get ever more expensive, and in shorter supply in the future."

A Defra spokesperson said: "The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain and is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.

"Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.

"We produce 60 per cent of all the food we need, and 73 per cent of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year, and these figures have changed little over the last 20 years."

Last month, the government published a Foreign Aid White Paper which details plans for private finance and "resilience and adaptation fund" to help poorer nations better prepare for climate disasters.

The new £150m fund will feature in the UK's 2024 aid budget and aim to help poorer nations access emergency funding and reduce the impact of future climate impacts.

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