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Monday’s decision in Paris to shut down cargo traffic from Britain in one go to prevent the mutated virus from entering France sheds light on the island country’s many surprising weaknesses. It showed, on the one hand, the importance of the Dover-Calais gateway and, on the other, the vulnerability of the British food supply. This may be particularly alarming in light of the impossibility of reaching a reassuring agreement with the Union on London’s withdrawal before the end of the year.
From 1 January, Member States will be required to establish customs borders for products from the UK. Negotiations on the form and rate of taxes have not yet started.
The site has always been a challenge for the UK food supply as it relies heavily on shipments from the mainland. The last three days are a good example of this, as some 3,000 trucks have come to a halt and made a forced break in the last 72 hours on the Dover motorway and in temporary parking lots. A significant proportion of these would have traveled back to the continent in search of fresh food, and some of them would have sent British products to Europe.
How dependent is the British food supply on Europe?
Very. According to the British Retail Association
30% of the food consumed in the UK comes from Europe,
which is quite a large number. Britain also imports more than half of its fresh vegetable stocks and half of its fruit from Europe. There is cyclical behavior in some areas because while in the summer months the British are almost self-sufficient in lettuce, raspberries and strawberries, as soon as the weather turns cool, the demand can only be met by food imports.
For example, in January, 95% of the lettuce is generally sourced from Europe, while in June, 95% of the demand comes from British farmers. The situation is similar with tomatoes. In January, 85 percent of the tomatoes sold in UK stores came from EU member states, but by summer 60 percent of UK demand was already satisfied domestically.
If all goes well, the most efficient and economical way to transport food is to pack it in refrigerated trucks. For example, let’s say you load a truck in Spain that goes to the port of Calais in France and gets into the belly of a cargo ferry, then it crosses the channel, at Dover, and takes the goods to a corner of the British Isles. There, after unloading, they are packed with some British product, which they also transport to one of the EU Member States by crossing the canal.
If the supply chain is disrupted, the British will try to deal with fresh food imports differently. For example, in the summer of 2018, during the heat wave that lasted for weeks, the consumption of salads increased. However, the scorching heat was not conducive to domestic lettuce production, so they were forced to order large quantities from California and ship them by sea, which did not make vegetables cheap at the time.
Could there be food shortages for the British?
Not likely yet. Major UK chain stores claim to have learned from the first wave of the coronavirus epidemic in the spring, when people began to panic over unexpected closings and stripped store shelves. Since then, they have carefully planned their purchases and constantly monitor inventory.
At British Tesco, for example, they claim to have replenished their basic food stocks long before Christmas time and are in constant contact with their suppliers to be able to make up for the depleted quantity as soon as possible. At the same time, they indicated that due to the truck stop, buyers would expect to have a quantity of lettuce and less citrus in the second half of the week.
This is a fairly subtle hint that on the third day of the truck stop, there were already British supermarkets where customers were greeted by nearly bare fruit and vegetable counters.
And what do the British sell to Europeans?
Last year, the UK’s global exports were £ 23.6bn, of which £ 14.2bn was goods found on the European continent. British whiskey, salmon, chocolate, cheese and gin are sold in the largest quantities. The UK exports a large quantity of meat to the European member states. Eighty per cent of UK beef exports go to the EU, and 30 per cent of lamb also finds a farm there.
(Cover image: Truck parking in England on December 22, 2020. Photo: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
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