Is Brexit a major cause of the current food shortgages in the UK?

[SmallTown]

My wife runs a business making soup.
Is Brexit a *major* factor in the current shortages in the UK?
No.
Is it a factor?
Yes.

Simply put, Brexit makes every problem we face when it comes to food production in this country worse to some degree. There has been literally no upside to Brexit (sunlit or not) for her business. The impact on any one factor is usually quite minor but add them all up and it's like sand in the gears; nothing works as well as it used to and there's always a risk of something grinding to a halt.

This is a really good summary. It explains both why the brexitist can defend brexit even though we all know everything is failing and why everything is just a bit more rubbish than it used to be. Gradual though it is it's clear we have regressed as a country

 

[Millbrook]

My understanding is much as others. There is a shortage in production across europe. We get hit a bit harder than most because we are no longer in the EU so it's easier to "export" to other EU countries.

It would appear that growers in GB have cut back production in greenhouses because of increased fuel costs.

Perhaps it's an accumulation of different reasons.

 

[r00fie1]

Didn't people say that the UK population was healthier than ever before during the war, because even though food was rationed it was nutritious? I expect one of the RWNJs to put it forward as a Brexit benefit in the next few days.

There were some benefits but there was still no public healthcare and serious diseases were rife: Measles, Rickets, Pneumonia, Coronary Heart Disease, Diptheria, Tuberculosis, Rubella, etc. From what my Nan an Great Grandad used to say, it seemed ordinary people were more practical - they could find ways of doing things and mending things. There were no luxuries.
People took to keeping chickens an growing their own fruit an veg. Today - we are all too use to things being there, without always appreciating their value.

 

[ThePrisoner]

It would appear that growers in GB have cut back production in greenhouses because of increased fuel costs.

Perhaps it's an accumulation of different reasons.

UK energy costs are at least twice that in most other European countries and amongst the highest in the world. One of the benefits of pushed by the Brexiteers was that outside the EU the UK could reduce VAT on fuel. It has not been reduced.

Lying **** stain lies again

 

[Colgates_shaving_foam]

I think most people could see that restricting our access to such a huge market was not going to work well.

We have essentially sanctioned ourselves and this makes all the problems we might have faced anyway that bit worse.

I think things will just get slowly more sh** over time, as we go on our increasingly expensive trips to the EU we will really start to notice how full their shelves are, how well maintained their towns and roads are compared to back at home.

This will one day lead to a clamour to get back in and join this prosperous club.

Until then, it'll be rationing and blackouts for us over the next few years.

 

[muniz]

This is one of the big impactors of electric vehicles. It's all well and good having the produce in Spain but range anxiety is preventing a lot of the deliveries to the UK. They keep stopping in France!

Sort the range, solve the shortage!

nothing will get sorted now we got rid of boris, need him reinstated immediately

 

[r00fie1]

The Minister for Waffle.

 

[Trug]

Saw this on Twitter
Daniel: I live in the Netherlands. We have too many tomatoes! We used to export them to the UK but it now takes a truck driver 77 hours of queueing to take tomatoes to the UK and all truck drivers simply refuse. So now we have cheap abundant tomatoes here in the Netherlands.

 

[SmallTown]

Saw this on Twitter
Daniel: I live in the Netherlands. We have too many tomatoes! We used to export them to the UK but it now takes a truck driver 77 hours of queueing to take tomatoes to the UK and all truck drivers simply refuse. So now we have cheap abundant tomatoes here in the Netherlands.

Ah Brexit. So it is making the problem worse

 

[ThePrisoner]

Let them eat turnips. It has come to this. Gaslighting to stratospheric levels by these tory vermin.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1628761320899084288

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

It would appear that growers in GB have cut back production in greenhouses because of increased fuel costs.

Perhaps it's an accumulation of different reasons.

That's not what their representative was saying. He put it fairly and squarely on the food traders (supermarkets) who aren't willing to pay the increased cost of food production. They dictate the terms, not the producers.

If we eat seasonal veg we should be ok, there's plenty of winter veg in the shops and on the market stalls. To be fair, I haven't seen any empty shelves at all.

 

[Millbrook]

That's not what their representative was saying. He put it fairly and squarely on the food traders (supermarkets) who aren't willing to pay the increased cost of food production. They dictate the terms, not the producers.

If we eat seasonal veg we should be ok, there's plenty of winter veg in the shops and on the market stalls. To be fair, I haven't seen any empty shelves at all.

I was not putting that forward as the single reason but I agree that a grower will not grow salads in greenhouses if the energy costs outweigh the price they get so I see your point.

 

[r00fie1]

 

[BoroMart]

That's not what their representative was saying. He put it fairly and squarely on the food traders (supermarkets) who aren't willing to pay the increased cost of food production. They dictate the terms, not the producers.

If we eat seasonal veg we should be ok, there's plenty of winter veg in the shops and on the market stalls. To be fair, I haven't seen any empty shelves at all.

I’ve seen plenty of empty shelves, prior to brexit we never had empty shelves in my lifetime

 

[Laughing]

It would appear that growers in GB have cut back production in greenhouses because of increased fuel costs.

Perhaps it's an accumulation of different reasons.

Wasnt aware of the greenhouse fact.

 

[ThePrisoner]

I’ve seen plenty of empty shelves, prior to brexit we never had empty shelves in my lifetime

Yes me too.

I don't know where Corcaigh is shopping if he's not seeing empty shelves. There are empty shelves permanently in my local Morrisons and have been for at least a year. Bananas, eggs, turnips, melons, celery to name just a few have all been unavailable at one time or another. Tomatoes and cucumbers are just the most recent, more extreme, shortage. The UK is now in a state of permanent food shortages.

M&S near me had no tomatoes today either. They had some cucumbers at about 50% more cost than I usually buy at Morrisons. Mind you, that is the same for everything in M&S all the time.

 

[YouAreMyBoro]

Wasnt aware of the greenhouse fact.

There was a programme on radio 4 recently where a farmer was saying they aren't growing cucumbers because there's nobody to pick them. The visa system doesn't quite work as by the time people are trained up they're half way through their visa time.

They went on to say that the stuff in supermarkets is going off quicker because of the increased travel time to get to the UK.

 

[Lefty]

I’ve seen plenty of empty shelves, prior to brexit we never had empty shelves in my lifetime

Yes, but prior to Brexit there was never bad weather on the continent.

 

[ThePrisoner]

Yes, but prior to Brexit there was never bad weather on the continent.

Fact !

 

[SmallTown]

.

If we eat seasonal veg we should be ok,

That's the classic brexit defence response isn't it? Just do without whatever it is brexit has denied us!

Youve got to love how even a defence of brexit now boils down to admitting it's ruining the country but so what