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

Thérèse Coffey might have come up with a pathetic defence in relation to the Brexit factor aggravating the current crisis, but as a response to the climate related food production issues that appear to underlie it, her comments would be spot on. We need to reduce food miles. Even a stopped clock ...
 
Norman_Conquest said:
The three things that need addressing here are:

1. Brexit
2. Global Warming
3. Reduced farming output in Britain

All three have impacted the shortage of fruit & veg
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Even as I loud anti brexiter (o know, I don't mention it much) I would reverse them as order of importance. Plus the specific greenhouse heating cost in this case (which, one could argue is caused by brexit in a roundabout way)
 
I cant recall there ever being a precedent for this situation?

And the rest of Europe isn't in the same position, in fact there seems to be a surplus in some countries.

So given the fact that we are an outlier in Europe in terms of trade agreements and that this hadn't happened before the advent of brexit, its seems a very obvious and logical conclusion that this is a significant, if not primary, cause.
 
Not sure where to start
But
From someone in the food retail industry

Mainland Europe and EU countries have plenty of salads.
Even Kiev
Why - it’s less hassle for exporters to get product there. Suppliers don’t need the hassle of UK rules n regs.

Late last year the CEO of APS (biggest tomato grower in UK) said ‘without help with energy costs there will be shortages’
He was on R4 this morning explaining UK greenhouses were empty as they couldn’t afford the energy. This time of year 30% of demand is serviced from UK. Not this year.

UK customers will not pay the current market rate for tomato’s. Our retail prices are far behind Europe despite extra costs.
On that basis UK retailers are loathe to invest.

There is probably enough to go round for the ‘home’ market.
Problem is the wholesale market meaning restaurants are piling into supermarkets. Hence rationing.

This time next year it will be spuds - UK suppliers significantly cutting back on planting - costs.

In summary - a combination of factors with Brexit and UK energy costs (political) being the most significant.
 
TeaCider said:
That doesn't mean there aren't though.

From that article above: "In a statement, the association – whose members account for 70% of Almería’s fruit and vegetable exports – said tomato production was down 22% on the same period last year, cucumber production had fallen by 21%, pepper and aubergine production by 25% and courgette production by 15%."

There's clearly an issue, but Spain and Morroco supply food products for many countries on top of their own domestic consumption.

Their own supply would be surely the last one you'd expect to be hit.

Our detachment from the common market and the fact we're further away will be exacerbating the issues for us on top of that.

New Zealand is also suffering shortages at the moment, that's not Brexit related.
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Yes we are, and thats due to the very poor weather we have had over summer, the cyclone that has hit our market garden area.

The higher prices are ridiculous but one thing I have learnt living here is to eat in season.
 
SmallTown said:
Even as I loud anti brexiter (o know, I don't mention it much) I would reverse them as order of importance. Plus the specific greenhouse heating cost in this case (which, one could argue is caused by brexit in a roundabout way)
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Screenshot_20230223-224802.jpg
A loud anti Brexiter ? You voted for it 🤣👍
 
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Trug said:
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.
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This information caught my eye.

I can't believe trucks are queuing 77 hours in normal cirumstances.

The UK Government controls importation why would they hold up a truck for even 24 hours containing tomatoes?

or is it a queue because there are so many lorries trying to get in around the ports in the South East of England and the ports can't cope opposed to UK customs staff

LIDL today near me had no tomatoes or peppers or cucumbers, but plenty of salad leaves. Eggs we very low (99% UK sourced), but loads of milk and toilet rolls. There was no problems with Spanish citrus fruits or German meats and German dairy products.

The shortages to me seem to be rotating from week to week. It appears to just in time methods of say the last 20 years are sometimes not working. Very perishable goods can't be held for say a week in a holding area so I imagine they are the most likely to show shortages.

My gut feeling is that the Brexit deal that was negotiated and how it is currently implemented on the ground is causing trade problems with some food imports, but its not the over riding problem. I think staff shortages in every country (Bloomberg seems to run daily stories in labour shortages in the USA) and extremely high increases in energy costs (300% increase in the last 18 months) have disrupted logistical networks and production. So low profit margin producers are not producing in the quantites they did. (hence drop in tomato production Spain) and moving things is not as reliable as it was.
 
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BoroMart said:
I’ve seen plenty of empty shelves, prior to brexit we never had empty shelves in my lifetime
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BM there was empty shelves sometimes in the 1970s - I remember a run on sugar, sometimes shops were shut because they had no power. Tomatoes could only be bought in season (April to November). We are experiencing massive changes in energy prices and much more strikes and like now labour shortages, plus double digit inflation, that remind me of the 1970s, that were not experienced in the last 40 years.
 
Redwurzel said:
Quite a few on here live in the food growing regions of Spain - has January and February being colder than usual?
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I'm in Gibraltar and the weather has been far worse than usual. Was 8c one day. Completely unheard of in these parts. Was front page news. Everyone walking round in huge Russian bearskin coats looking like they were considering having to sleep inside horse carcasses
 
Seems like Spain (in Murcia?) has been having different weather, it is possible.

I have seen photos of snow in lowland areas of Morocco which is also unheard of.

I believe Morrocco is now used for winter crops.
 
It's worth pointing out that (as reported on here) Spain has tonatoes. So we can defelct by debating the weather as much as we like but it doesn't seem to have adversely affected the crop. So there must be something else at play stopping our none EU country from having tomatoes
 
SmallTown said:
It's worth pointing out that (as reported on here) Spain has tonatoes. So we can defelct by debating the weather as much as we like but it doesn't seem to have adversely affected the crop. So there must be something else at play stopping our none EU country from having tomatoes
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Might it be that massive yellow thing in the sky?
one of the videos linked in an earlier post, the farmer clearly says his heating bill for greenhouses has gone up x3 so not beneficial to grow tomatoes 🤔🤔
 
Stocko said:
Might it be that massive yellow thing in the sky?
one of the videos linked in an earlier post, the farmer clearly says his heating bill for greenhouses has gone up x3 so not beneficial to grow tomatoes 🤔🤔
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Yup. But we get most of our tomoates from Morroco and Spain at this time of the year. Spain has tomatoes.

Ergo it must be something else that is stopping the none EU country getting its usual produce..

Add to that the story of the Dutch lorries that aren't sending tomatoes to the UK becadie of red tape and you can see what is exacerbating the issue.
 
SmallTown said:
Yup. But we get most of our tomoates from Morroco and Spain at this time of the year. Spain has tomatoes.

Ergo it must be something else that is stopping the none EU country getting its usual produce..

Add to that the story of the Dutch lorries that aren't sending tomatoes to the UK becadie of red tape and you can see what is exacerbating the issue.
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I heard that Spanish and French shelves are full with tomatoes. Spanish because they sell to locals first in a drop in supply and French because they pay higher prices for their tomatoes from the supplier so it makes sense for the suppliers to give to countries first who are willing to pay more.
 
Fat_Dragon said:
I heard that Spanish and French shelves are full with tomatoes. Spanish because they sell to locals first in a drop in supply and French because they pay higher prices for their tomatoes from the supplier so it makes sense for the suppliers to give to countries first who are willing to pay more.
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Or able to pay more? With import costs being so much higher outside of the EU, it makes sense for Spain to distribute it's tomatoes to other countries it has a free trade agreement with
 
Our own miniscule domestic production will be a leading factor.

Of the three countries mentioned:

Spain produces 4,768,595 tonnes of tomatoes a year.
The Netherlands produces 910,000 tonnes.
France produces 712,019 tonnes.

The UK produces 66,893 tonnes.

That data may be slightly out of date, but we've got a larger population than all 3 countries, yet our domestic growth is non-existent in comparison.

France and Spain you can at least explain with their Mediterranean climate, but the Netherlands are clearly making a concerted effort to produce their own within greenhouses.
 
TeaCider said:
Our own miniscule domestic production will be a leading factor.

Of the three countries mentioned:

Spain produces 4,768,595 tonnes of tomatoes a year.
The Netherlands produces 910,000 tonnes.
France produces 712,019 tonnes.

The UK produces 66,893 tonnes.

That data may be slightly out of date, but we've got a larger population than all 3 countries, yet our domestic growth is non-existent in comparison.

France and Spain you can at least explain with their Mediterranean climate, but the Netherlands are clearly making a concerted effort to produce their own within greenhouses.
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Top line: yes, exactly. Which is why Brexit has caused such issues.
 
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