Arla chief fears ‘seismic Brexit’

Brexit means the farming and food sectors are facing “the biggest seismic change in the political and financial landscape in our lifetime”, an international conference heard yesterday.

Calling on the UK government to publish its future plans for agriculture through a parliamentary bill “at the earliest opportunity early next year”, and adding that any delay would be detrimental to the industry, Tomas Pietrangeli, UK managing director of Arla Foods said:

“The end of free trade is a major risk. In order to pro- tect the health of the dairy industry in the UK, we need to have tariff-free and barrier free trading conditions. We are a business and an industry that make a significant contribution to the dairy industry and the wider UK economy.”

Speaking at the International Dairy Federation’s (IDF) World Dairy Summit in Belfast he said that while a two-year transition might give some time to adapt, it was unlikely to be long enough – while a “no-deal” exit or a default to a WTO free-trade position would be disastrous.

“We need to have the best possible trading conditions with the EU. We need to get Brexit right,” said Pietrangeli. “Trade with the EU is the most important market for UK dairy businesses and UK dairy should be recognised as a key player in Brexit negotiations. We do not want to see dairy businesses come under pressure because of restrictions on trading conditions.”

He also said the need for access to non UK labour was crucial, pointing out that 56 per cent of farms had employed nonuk nationals in the last five years, 41 per cent of processing business had employed non- UK nationals and 60-80 per cent of third party logistics business had employed nonuk nationals.