Buy less foreign food says Environment Minister: Quarter of imported products 'could be grown in Britain' Owen Paterson wants people to buy 'Scottish raspberries' and 'Kent apples' Believes British farmers and producers 'grow best food in the world' Around 40% of our food is currently brought in from overseas An estimated £8billion of fruit and vegetables was imported in 2012 By Ben Spencer and Fiona Macrae Families should buy British to cut down on food imports, the Environment Secretary will say today. Owen Paterson believes a quarter of the food we now import should be produced domestically instead. Britain ships in 40 per cent of its food including New Zealand lamb, French apples, Spanish cucumbers and Danish bacon. Home-grown: The Environment Minister will encourage people to buy apples grown in Britain (file picture) "We can't grow mangoes or pineapples, but we can encourage UK consumers and businesses to buy Scottish raspberries or Kent apples," Mr Paterson will tell the Oxford Farming Conference. He will urge shoppers to return to buying seasonal British food rather than rely on produce grown abroad all year round. An estimated £8billion of fruit and vegetables was imported last year - £2billion of this being varieties that could be cultivated here. Homemade: Environment Minister Owen Paterson believes a quarter of the food we now import should be produced domestically instead Eighty-one per cent of tomatoes - a crop once common in UK greenhouses - are foreign-grown, as are 59 per cent of mushrooms we eat. Fewer than half of broad, runner and dwarf beans consumed here are domestic. In 2000, UK farmers produced far more than was required, exporting the rest. Just 30 per cent of cucumbers are grown in Britain, down from 55 per cent 14 years ago. And only 22 per cent of spring onions - an incredibly easy vegetable to grow here - are UK produced, down from 62 per cent in 2000. Mr Paterson will pledge the Government's support for farmers, promising investment in new technologies and cutting bureaucracy. "As British farmers and food producers you know that we grow some of the best food in the world here," he will say. We have a top-class fruit and veg sector which produces everything from green beans to strawberries, yet we imported £8billion of fruit and veg in 2012. This is a huge opportunity, and it's up to all of us - farmers, food manufacturers and the Government - to take action. By buying seasonal fruit and veg we can improve the nation's health, help the environment and boost the economy. Richard Young, of the Sustainable Food Trust, said a generation had grown up expecting food to be available on demand, all year. "Supermarkets have become an Aladdin's cave to us and it is very difficult to resist things," he added. Brought in: An estimated £8billion of fruit and vegetables was imported last year - £2billion of this being varieties that could be cultivated here (file picture) If I go into a supermarket, I inevitably buy things I didn't intend to. It's clever marketing. It has made people of a certain age believe that they have a divine right to eat mange tout peas in the middle of winter. There are all sorts of reasons for not being able to count on inexhaustible amounts of food continuing to come from abroad in the far distant future. You only need two major droughts in successive years in America, Russia or Australia for grain prices to go up quite dramatically. Joanna Blythman, a food writer and expert on the British food chain, said shoppers should begin by thinking which locally-produced foods were in season. "There are some foods I feel I never need to buy - but no one is saying to never eat a lemon or buy a mango," she said. But at this time of the year, don't buy green beans from Kenya or blueberries from South America but concentrate on things grown here like apples and pears and the first Yorkshire rhubarb. It is a very much more interesting way to eat. Just having what you want every day of the year gets quite boring because every day is the same. There is nothing duller than clapped out green beans and baby corn flown in from Thailand all year round. Mr Paterson's announcement was last night welcomed by food producers - but many questioned whether the Government would do enough. They cited problems including European proposals that the Union flag be banished from packets of British meat. Peter Melchett, of the Soil Association, an organic farming group, said: "This announcement is the one positive thing this Government has said about farming. If you look at organic farming, which is beginning to return to growth, we have a real problem because organic farms in the UK get less support than in any other EU state. EU governments give an average of £135 a hectare in funding for farmers to convert to and stay organic, more than double the rate here, he said. Latest Government figures show 24 per cent of farming businesses failed to make a profit in 2010/11, with a further 39 per cent making an income of less than £30,000.