In its third annual resilience report, IGD identified a number of risks expected to have the greatest impact on UK food system resilience over the next five years.
Geopolitics was ranked as the highest risk, followed by climate change, water and agriculture, while 100% of respondents said they do not believe Government policy has strengthened food resilience over the past year.’
IGD said the findings underlined the “scale and complexity” of the challenge facing the UK food system, as businesses navigate a volatile operating environment shaped by global conflict, climate disruption, cost pressures and more fragile supply chains.
“Organisations must anticipate change, invest in capability and build supply chains that can withstand shocks, adapt quickly and thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
The IGD resilience survey ranks the risks in the following order:
- Geopolitics
- Climate change
- Water
- Agriculture
- The economics of the food system
- Labour and skills
- Animal disease
- Cyber-security
- Biodiversity loss
- Opaque supply chain
While geopolitics received the highest risk score, IGD argued that climate change is likely to pose the greatest long-term risk to the UK food system because of the way it compounds other pressures, including water scarcity, agricultural volatility, biodiversity loss and supply chain disruption.
Kathryn Reynolds, senior manager resilience at IGD, commented: “This year’s report shows that the risks facing the food system are intensifying; building resilience has become a shared priority across all sectors in the food system and at a fast rate. For food businesses, reacting to disruption is no longer enough. Organisations must anticipate change, invest in capability and build supply chains that can withstand shocks, adapt quickly and thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
