In brief:

• emerging economies in the Far East present fierce competition to the food & drink industry
• constraints on the UK industry's ability to compete include price and availability of raw materials, regulatory demands and supply chain pressure for keen pricing.

Water supply / prices

• the sector uses some 430 million litres of water per day from the public supply and abstracts around 260 million litres from boreholes and rivers
• drought conditions/concentrated development in the south east of England are leading to acute water shortages
• maintaining access to high quality water at a reasonable price is key, as water is used as a food ingredient, for food processing (including cooling water) and for cleaning.

Social and ethical issues

In brief:

• the industry needs to provide products that meet the changing lifestyle and demographic needs of the nation, including convenient meal solutions, healthier, functional and organic food. This can conflict with environmental aspirations, for example smaller pack sizes use more packaging per product.
• there is an increasing consumer demand for ethically produced goods.
• manufacturers therefore need to work closely with their suppliers in developing countries to ensure high environmental/social standards and to ensure traceability of raw materials.

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