Farming for 5-a-day: how resilient is the UK’s supply of fruit, veg and beans in a changing climate?

This briefing aims to explore the prospects for the supply of fruit, vegetables, beans and pulses (i.e., beans, lentils, chickpeas and other legumes) in the UK in a changing climate. It identifies where there are opportunities for the UK to increase production and shore up food and nutrition security, as well as looking at the current vulnerability of the UK’s supply. These foods are core components of a healthy and sustainable diet and should be a priority for the Government. Based on the findings, it recommends a series of actions for policymakers to ensure UK citizens have a future supply of these staple healthy foods.

The analysis in this briefing focuses on the top 20 most purchased fruit and veg, according to Fresh Produce Journal’s Big 50 Products, 2023. This list identifies and ranks the 50 best-selling fresh fruit and vegetable products over the previous year in UK supermarkets. To calculate UK self-sufficiency of these 20 products, authors used import and export data from Defra’s Horticultural Statistics 2024, which provides annual statistics on the area, yield, production, trade and valuation of fruit and vegetable crops grown in the UK. They also look at climate vulnerability of the countries the UK imports fruit and vegetables from.