Lufthansa transports fresh food to England as UK border chaos continues

A Lufthansa (Pressures) The spokesperson told CNN Business that a Boeing 777 freighter carrying 80 tons of perishable goods would leave Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m. ET and arrive at Doncaster-Sheffield Airport about 90 minutes later. The airline is working with freight forwarders to supply products from Egypt, Spain and other countries.

France and the UK agreed on Tuesday evening to reopen ferry ports and the Eurotunnel rail link, but at least 3,000 trucks were stranded Wednesday morning with their drivers awaiting the negative Covid-19 tests they need to travel. Only two trucks had arrived in Calais from the English port of Dover, a Calais port spokesman told CNN.

Major UK supermarkets such as Tesco (TSCDY) and Sainsbury’s (JSAIY) He warned earlier this week that they would start running out of some fresh items like lettuce, salad leaves, broccoli, cauliflower and citrus fruits in a few days if the port chaos is not resolved soon. The industry association responsible for cold distribution also warned that a prolonged lockdown would cause “major problems” for supply chains in January.

A Tesco spokesperson told CNN Business on Wednesday that the company had nothing to add to its earlier statement.

The backlog of trucks piling up around Dover will take days to clear, a UK government minister said on Wednesday.

“I hope the heavy vehicles [Heavy Goods Vehicles] will cross the English Channel this morning so the position will gradually start to improve, but I think it will take time, “UK Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said. Speaking to Sky News, he said he does not dispute that the Delays have caused problems for the supply chain, but he stated that “there is no material shortage of food.”

The British Retail Consortium, which represents more than 170 major UK retailers plus thousands of smaller companies, said it was “essential” that trucks started moving quickly again now that the border had reopened.

“Until the backlog is removed and supply chains are back on track, we anticipate issues with availability of some fresh produce,” said Andrew Opie, BRC’s director of food and sustainability.

The freight crisis comes at the worst time for retail companies as they try to meet peak holiday demand and accumulate additional inventory in case Britain exits the single market and the EU customs union in a few days without a deal post-Brexit trade.

Lufthansa said it was examining whether additional special cargo flights could be offered in the coming days.

“We are also verifying if a regular flight is possible,” the spokesperson said. “This could be with a freighter, but we are also examining whether we could use passenger aircraft only for cargo flights.”

The German-flagged carrier took a similar step at the beginning of the pandemic in March, when it launched “a Germany-wide airlift” to ensure goods were supplied across the country. The move evoked the Cold War operation by American and British aircraft to keep West Berlin stocked with food and other essentials during the Soviet blockade in 1948 and 1949.

– Rob North, Sharon Braithwaite, and Fanny Bobille contributed to this article.