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Drinks and Food: Prices

Question for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

UIN HL12677, tabled on 27 January 2021

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on the price of food and drink to consumers in the UK.

Answered on

10 February 2021

We have successfully negotiated a Free Trade Agreement with the EU which means that businesses will be able to continue to trade with the EU with minimal friction of movement for agri-food products. This therefore means that UK consumers will not experience any tariff-based increases to consumer food prices for agri-food imports from the EU which meet the Rules of Origin.

Consumer food prices depend on a range of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, and Sterling exchange rates. While most food industry sectors are accustomed to fluctuations in supply chain costs, these do not necessarily translate into consumer price rises.