The Food and Drink Federation said Wednesday it has asked the government to direct the Competition and Markets Authority to relax rules that prevent such co-ordination. It hasn't yet received a response.
"If the government wants the food supply chain to work together to tackle likely shortages - to decide where to prioritize shipments - they will have to provide cast-iron written reassurances that competition law will not be strictly applied to those discussions," Tim Rycroft, the federation's chief operating officer, said in a statement. "Without such assurances, any such collaboration would risk incurring large fines from the CMA.