No-deal Brexit poses threat to UK food supply chain
While the Covid pandemic has highlighted some of the vulnerabilities inherent in the current UK food supply chain, a no-deal Brexit is likely to bring even more disruption - including a shortage of fruit and vegetables, researchers have claimed.
Warning that without a deal with Europe the UK faces a shortage of fresh produce unless new markets are found soon, experts from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) said that recent Covid-driven price increases would be exacerbated by the no-deal Brexit looming on the horizon: “Whilst Covid-19 has already had an impact on prices and imports, a no-deal Brexit may have far more severe effects on the food chain,” said Cesar Revoredo-giha and Montserrat Costa-font, food marketing researchers at the SRUC.
Writing in a blog published by the London School of Economics and Political Science, they compared the price of 20 fruits and vegetables between March and April this year, and with the same months last year.
“Relative both to the previous month and last year (to consider potential seasonal effects), we can identify significant price differences.”
“There was a product specific price increase of some vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions and mushrooms, which are mainly sourced from the EU. When we look at fruits, oranges and pineapples are the fruits that have suffered the largest price increase.”
The researchers also found that there was a reduction in the quantity of EU imports for all the vegetables and fruits compared to the same period in the three previous years.
“We can conclude that small disruptions in the food chain may exert a very important effect on the prices and the source of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the UK,” they said.
And while the focus of attention during the Covid-19 crisis had been on products associated with panic buying such as dry pasta, canned food and toiletries, a no-deal Brexit would have a significant impact on the fresh food imports.
“The UK imports more than half of the tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, mushrooms, peppers and lettuce it consumes, with between 75 to 100 per cent of these products imported from the EU in 2019.”
Stating that data indicated that disruptions in the fruit and vegetable supply chain could exert important effects on the price and potentially on their consumption in the UK, they said:
“This can have important effects on the nutrition of the UK population – particularly for those with limited income – and improvements towards the five-aday goal.
They said the fruit and vegetable supply could be disrupted in multiple ways, the most obvious of which was finding alternative sources of such imports:
“It should be noted this is not as trivial as picking a different stall in the global market.
“It implies establishing relationships with reputable suppliers able to provide products of the same quality and at the best prices, not to mention the changes in the import regime, such as customs checks.”