The UK could face gaps on supermarket shelves this summer if disruption caused by the Iran war continues, with shortages of carbon dioxide potentially hitting supplies of chicken, pork and fizzy drinks. Ministers are drawing up contingency plans for a “reasonable worst-case scenario” if the key shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen, disrupting supplies of the gas required by the food industry.
Officials from departments including No 10, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence have run a planning operation named Exercise Turnstone to rehearse how British industry could be affected by a long closure of the strait. The exercise, overseen by the government’s Cobra emergency committee, was based on multiple disruptive events happening at once, including the strait still being closed in June, a lack of a permanent peace deal between the US and Iran, and a mechanical failure at one of the UK’s key CO2 plants.
CO2 is a byproduct of industrial production, but is widely used across farming, food production and hospitality. It is essential for the humane slaughter of livestock, used to stun pigs and chickens, and is also employed in packaging fresh meats and produce to halt bacteria growth and extend shelf life. It is necessary for fizzy drinks and beer, as well as for cooling systems in refrigeration. Beyond food and hospitality, the gas is needed for surgical procedures, MRI scans and cooling nuclear power plants.
Business secretary Peter Kyle said on Thursday that the public should be “reassured” by the fact ministers were making contingency plans. He called the leak of the plans “unhelpful”, telling Times Radio: “The public need to be reassured that we are doing this kind of planning.” Kyle noted that the government had already decided to invest £100m to restart the mothballed Ensus bioethanol plant on Teesside, saying that “people should be reassured that we are doing this kind of action behind the scenes”.
The boss of Tesco, Ken Murphy, said the supermarket had “seen nothing at this point” in terms of problems within its supply chain caused by CO2 availability, and that none of its suppliers had flagged issues. He welcomed the reopening of the Teesside plant and said the government was “doing the right thing in planning for a worst-case scenario”. Murphy added that the biggest impact on supply chains recently had come from bad weather in Spain and north Africa, but Tesco had been able to flex its supply chain to keep goods flowing.
