Food and drink shortages possible as UK support for CO2 industry ends
British producers have raised fears of beer and burger shortages and higher prices for shoppers after the government said it would stop propping up the CO2 industry.
A three-month deal to support the UK’s main producer of the gas, brought in as an emergency measure after a crisis in the autumn, ends next week and it is understood it will not be renewed.
The government provided a temporary bailout to CF Fertilisers, which accounts for 60% of the UK’s CO2 supplies, to counter the threat of chaos in supply chains, after its US owner shut its factories amid the soaring cost of natural gas.
Any holdup in supplies would affect soft drinks and bakery producers as well as meat processors and brewers, who all use CO2 in making and packaging their goods.
It is understood that the government, which pumped in money for three weeks in September before facilitating the current industry deal, has said it will not put up further cash. The deal was supposed to create time for alternative sources of food grade CO2 to be developed, but industry insiders said there had been little progress.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said: “It is for the CO2 industry to ensure supplies to UK businesses.”
The current deal supported a UK fertiliser plant, based in Billingham in Stockton-on-Tees, which is one of the main producers of food-grade CO2, until 31 January. Further production is reliant on a successful deal between CF Industries, the US owner of the plant, and the UK distributors of the gas, Nippon Gases and Air Liquide. CF, whose Billingham plant can produce 750 tonnes of CO2 per day, told the Guardian on Monday that it was continuing to negotiate with its industrial gas customers.
At a meeting
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