Yahoo Finance UK business secretary makes plea for Brits not to stockpile food
Alok Sharma, the British business secretary, warned Brits on Monday not to stockpile food, saying he was confident supply chains would hold up in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
“I’m very confident that actually the supply chains will still be in place,” he told Sky News. “I would say to everyone - do your normal shopping as you would do and I think we’ll find we’re going to be absolutely fine.”
It comes amid warnings to the UK government that the current port chaos could be repeated next year as new Brexit checks come into force, threatening to make some food supply routes “unviable.”
Port operators have said that supermarket meat and salad supplies could face major disruption, accusing the government of an “alarming lack of urgency” upgrading border facilities and plans for overly heavy-handed checks.
The chairman of Tesco (TSCO.L), Britain’s biggest supermarket, also said earlier this week that a failure to agree a deal would likely lead to higher prices at the tills.
“There will be tariffs and those tariffs can be quite substantial on some food items, inevitably leading to higher prices,” John Allen told Bloomberg TV. “That’s unavoidable.”
Allen said prices would rise by an average of 3% to 5% but could be as high as 40% for some items, such as French cheese.
Similarly, the British Retail Consortium urged consumers not to stockpile as retailers are increasing stocks to ensure a “sufficient supply of essential products”.
READ MORE: UK tomato, lettuce, and lemon prices set to soar under no-deal Brexit
"New checks and red tape that will apply from January 1 will create an additional burden for retailers and their customers. Retailers are doing everything they can to prepare for all eventualities on 1 January — increasing the stock of tins, toilet rolls and other longer life products," said BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson.
She added: "While no amount of preparation by retailers can entirely prevent disruption there is no need for the public to buy more food than usual as the main impact will be on imported fresh produce, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, which cannot be stored for long periods by either retailers or consumers."
Although Britain formally left the EU on 31 January this year it will fully leave the bloc on 31 December 2020. It has just a number of days to seal a wide range of agreements with Brussels, or be forced into a no-deal Brexit.
Last week, Boris Johnson said that it was “very, very likely” for the UK to leave without a deal in place as the EU needed to make a “big change” over the main sticking points on fisheries, ensuring fair competition guarantees and ways to solve future disputes.
Neither side has been ready to concede on these issues.
READ MORE: UK food may arrive late, ‘tatty’ or not at all over Brexit issues-business chief
Following a call between Boris Johnson and European Union commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, the two parties have agreed to extend the 13 December deadline for reaching a post-Brexit agreement.
A joint statement from the pair said: “We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics.
“Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days. And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.
“We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.”
Without a trade deal, after January 1 the public will face more than £3bn ($4bn) in food tariffs and higher prices throughout 2021.
Four-fifths of the UK’s food imports come from the EU and 85% that trade would face tariffs. The average tariff on food imported from the EU would be 20%.
Supermarkets would likely have to pass that cost on to customers given the slim profit margins in the sector.
Watch: 10 ways to Brexit proof your finances
