Sainsbury’s chief says food supplies could be hit by customs controls

The chief executive of Sainsbury’s has warned that fresh food could be left rotting at the British border if strict customs controls for EU goods are put in place after Brexit.

In a direct intervention into the Brexit debate, Mike Coupe told the Press Association that anything disrupting established food supply chains, currently governed by EU customs arrangements, would be “detrimental”.

He added that the retail sectorwillmakeitsvoiceheard “strongly” if pragmatism does not prevail during exit negotiations. He said: “The UK sourc- 0 Mike Coupe was blunt over possible effect on fresh food es roughly a third of its food from the European Union and food is by far and away the UK’S largest export. If you take our fresh produce supply chains, for example, we put things on a lorry in Spain and it will arrive in a distribution centre somewhere in England, and it won’t have gone through any border checks.

“Anything that encumbers that has two effects: it adds cost, and it also has a detrimental effect on freshness – if you’re shipping fresh produce from a long distance, even a few hours of delay can make a material impact.”

The warning comes after the British Retail Consortium said food prices, already soaring following the Brexitinduced collapse in the pound, could rocket further unless measures to tackle red tape and improve ports are put in place.