How can businesses turn sustainability and resilience into commercial advantage? Key insights from IGD's Future of the UK Food System 2026.
The IGD Future of the UK Food System 2026 event delivered a clear message: the food system must move from ambition to action, against a backdrop of growing pressures around growth, resilience and health.
At this year's sustainability and resilience breakout session, delegates explored a question that is becoming increasingly important for food and consumer goods businesses: how can organisations strengthen resilience and deliver sustainability ambitions while also creating commercial value?
A clear theme emerged throughout the discussion. Sustainability and resilience can no longer be treated as separate agendas. Mitigation must be coupled with adaptation to ensure the viability of a thriving food system.
Businesses are increasingly recognising that the ability to manage risk, secure supply, support producers and adapt to a changing operating environment is fundamental to long-term commercial success.
Moving from short-term responses to long-term resilience
In recent years much of the focus has been centred on responding to immediate disruptions and shocks, including geopolitical events, extreme weather and cyber-attacks. However, speakers highlighted a notable shift in the way organisations are approaching resilience with businesses increasingly beginning to think about resilience as a long term strategic capability.
Discussions reflected a growing recognition that organisations need to understand where their vulnerabilities lie and invest in preparedness before shocks occur, rather than simply reacting to crises as they emerge. Businesses need to consider how they can build robustness into their operations, supply chains and sourcing strategies. This requires balancing short-term competitiveness with long-term resilience, acknowledging that investments made today may only deliver benefits over a much longer time horizon.
A valuable tool for understanding your exposure, preparedness is the IGD Resilience Capability Tool, which helps identify your priorities and take practical action to strengthen your business.
Sustainability and resilience becoming part of core business decisions
Participants observed that sustainability is becoming more integrated with commercial functions. In some organisations, sustainability is moving beyond standalone corporate functions, with sustainability leaders increasingly co-developing business strategies and plans alongside teams from across the organisation.
This evolution reflects a wider trend of treating sustainability and resilience as business critical issues rather than for the purpose of compliance or marketing. Delegates discussed the importance of focusing on material business risks, maintaining continuity of supply and ensuring businesses can continue operating effectively under increasingly challenging conditions.
The conversation also highlighted the need for greater engagement at executive level, with several participants suggesting that more CEO-to-CEO discussions are needed to accelerate progress and embed resilience considerations into strategic decision-making.
Long-term partnerships as a foundation for resilience
One of the strongest themes emerging from the session was the importance of long-term agreements (LTAs) and stronger supplier relationships.
Delegates repeatedly identified longer-term partnerships as a practical mechanism for sharing risk and uncertainty across supply chains. Examples were discussed where producers shoulder most of the risk associated with poor harvests or climate related impacts, while customers face fewer consequences.
Long-term agreements were seen to create greater certainty for farmers and suppliers, encourage investment and support resilience across the whole supply chain. Such approaches are particularly important within fragile supply chains and UK agriculture, where incentives to address environmental and social challenges are often limited.
Several contributors argued that resilience cannot be built solely through relationships with the largest suppliers. Instead, there was support for extending longer-term commitments further throughout supply chains to support farmers and workers more consistently.
Fair returns and resilient supply chains
The role of fair pricing and producer livelihoods featured prominently throughout the discussion.
Delegates heard examples demonstrating how supply chain resilience is closely linked to the economic sustainability of those producing food. Concerns were raised that insufficient focus is often placed on the prices paid to producers and whether returns adequately reflect the costs of production.
The discussion highlighted the risks associated with global supply chains facing increasing climate pressures, with bananas cited as a useful example of how climate disruption, market dynamics and producer livelihoods intersect. Participants noted that despite significant changes in production conditions and costs, some products have seen little movement in consumer prices over decades.
Speakers emphasised that fair returns for producers should be viewed not simply as a social issue, but as a critical component of long-term supply resilience.
Collaboration needs to move from evidence to action
Significant progress has been made in generating data, evidence and insight, however, many felt that the challenge now lies in translating knowledge into action.
There was strong support for increased collaboration across businesses, producers, NGOs and industry organisations. Delegates highlighted the value of working through pre-competitive partnerships, sharing expertise and addressing common challenges collectively rather than in isolation.
Several contributors pointed to the role that organisations such as IGD, the Fairtrade Foundation and Future Food Movement can play in convening stakeholders and supporting collaborative action. Simultaneously, the broader challenge of policy alignment was highlighted. The discussion identified a clear lack of cross government understanding of the food system and the interconnected issues affecting supply chain resilience, sustainability, economic growth and public outcomes. A more joined up policy approach would look to solve this challenge and would ultimately benefit both industry and consumers.
Bridging the remaining gap
When considering the key barriers that remain, delegates highlighted three recurring challenges.
First, there remains a time horizon gap. Building resilience often requires investment today for benefits that may not materialise for years.
Secondly, businesses may underestimate consumers' willingness to support more sustainable and resilient approaches. While affordability and availability remain critical, participants suggested there is often greater consumer appetite to "do the right thing" than businesses assume.
Third, there remains a need for stronger alignment across government departments to better support long term food system resilience.
Looking ahead
The session challenged delegates to consider two different futures: one characterised by increasing disruption, supply shocks and system pressures, and another built on investment, innovation and greater resilience.
The discussion ultimately pointed towards a clear conclusion. Delivering sustainability and resilience is not separate from commercial success. Long-term planning will be essential for businesses to adapt to a changing operating environment and deliver sustainable growth, sticking to current Business-as-usual strategies will fail.
Organisations that understand their risks, invest for the long term, build stronger partnerships and work collaboratively across supply chains will be better placed to secure supply, create value and navigate an increasingly uncertain future.
To explore more tools and solutions that could help your business, please take a look at:
Resilience Capability Tool - The IGD Resilience Capability Tool helps you assess your exposure and preparedness, identify your priorities, and take practical action to strengthen your business.
Food Supply Chain Sustainability Framework - The Food Supply Chain Sustainability Framework provides a shared approach for suppliers and customers to assess sustainability maturity, align priorities and work together to accelerate progress.