Food supply fears grow over Brexit

Industry warns of ‘wartime’ shortages

The British food industry is urging the Government to set aside competition rules so companies can coordinate supply decisions to combat food shortages if Britain leaves the European Union without an agreement on trade relations.

The Food and Drink Federation said yesterday it had asked the British Government to direct the Competition and Markets Authority to relax rules that prevent such co-ordination. It hasn’t yet received a response.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain will leave the EU on the scheduled date of October 31, with or without a divorce deal. Many economists say a no-deal Brexit will trigger a recession and cause economic mayhem, with shortages of fresh food and other goods likely as customs checks snarl Britain’s ports.

The food and drink federation said Britain’s decision to delay Brexit until October 31 from the original date in March makes it more difficult for supermarkets to keep shelves filled because normal stockpiling for the Christmas season means there is less warehouse space available in the fall.

“If the Government wants the food supply chain to work together to tackle likely shortages — to decide where to prioritise shipments — they

will have to provide cast-iron written reassurances that competition law will not be strictly applied to those discussions,” said Tim Rycroft, the federation’s chief operating officer. “Without such assurances, any such collaboration would risk incurring large fines” from the regulator.

Christopher Haskins, a former chairman of Northern Foods, one of the country’s largest suppliers of package foods, said panic buying is possible. “We could be in a sort of wartime situation of a limited amount of food rationing,” he told the BBC. “Those who can remember the war, that took a long time to put into place and it was pretty haphazard and pretty unfair.”

Michael Gove, the Cabinet minister in charge of preparing for a no-deal Brexit, said Britain had “a very resilient food supply system”. “But of course, we’re constantly talking to supermarkets, food distributors and others to see what more the Government can do to help,” he said.

Johnson has ordered British officials to “turbo-charge” preparations for a no-deal exit, setting aside more than £2 billion ($3.8b) to hire more border officials, stockpile medicines and prepare for backlogs of trucks around the major Channel port of Dover.