Some of the UK’s favourite fresh foods may be unavailable for weeks, or even months, if the country crashes out of the European Union without a deal, the UK’s food and drink lobby warned on Wednesday.
Retailers such as Tesco have also warned that leaving the bloc on October 31 without a transition agreement would be problematic because so much fresh produce is imported and warehouses are stocked full before Christmas.
The industry – which employs 450,000 people – views Brexit as the biggest challenge since World War II, dwarfing previous crises such as the horsemeat scandal of 2013 and the mad cow disease outbreaks of the 1980s and 1990s.
“We know there will be disruption at ports, and that will have knock-on effects,” Tim Rycroft, the Food and Drink Federation’s chief operating officer, told Al Jazeera.
“There will be shortages – [though] no one will starve; this won’t be like the war.”
The UK only produces half the food it consumes, and retailers have concerned food with short shelf-lives could be left to rot in the back of trucks while lengthy new customs procedures build backlogs of deliveries.
In advance of the original Brexit deadline of March 29, supermarkets and retailers spent millions of pounds working with suppliers to increase stocks of dried goods including pasta, bottled water, and toilet paper.
But after three years of Brexit discussions, it is still unclear on what terms the country will leave the bloc, with options ranging from a last-minute exit deal or delay to an acrimonious divorce.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that unless the EU agrees to a new divorce deal, he would then lead the country out of the bloc on October 31 without an agreement.
When winter approaches, the UK becomes more dependent on imported food, so a Halloween no-deal Brexit is potentially more disruptive.
Britain imports around 60 percent of its food by the beginning of November – just the time that delays caused by a no-deal Brexit could be clogging up ports and motorways, Rycroft said.
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