Here’s one to chew over . . . how to keep Ireland sweet after Brexit
BRITAIN’S food and drink industry has issued a warning to Brexit negotiators that a special relationship must be maintained with Ireland, the UK’s biggest source of food imports.
The warning comes as the UK’s trade deficit in food and drink widens, even as British exports rise.
Ian Wright, director general of the Food and Drink Federation, said: ‘From our point of view, Ireland is the most obvious example of how Brexit will or won’t work – 60 per cent of the food we eat, we grow ourselves, 40 per cent we import. By far the biggest source of those imports is the Republic of Ireland. So it is our critical food trading partner.’
Some ingredients in Baileys Irish Cream liqueur, for example, cross the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland three times before it is exported to Britain, potentially incurring high tariff charges if Britain undergoes a ‘hard’ Brexit.
Meanwhile, in the three months to March, the gap between imports and exports of agricultural and manufactured food and drink products rose 19 per cent to £6.2billion on the same period in the previous year, according to the federation.
Exports of British food rose 8 per cent to £4.9billion. But imports rose 14 per cent to £11.1billion – closely reflecting the Brexit-related rise in the euro and dollar over sterling in that period.