Lufthansa transports fresh food to England as UK border chaos continues

a Lufthansa (DLAKY) A spokesman told CNN Business that the Boeing 777 freight carrier would depart Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m. carrying 80 tons of perishable cargo 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 United Kingdom agreed late Tuesday to reopen ferry ports and the Eurotunnel railway link, but at least 3,000 trucks were stranded awaiting negative Covid-19 tests that required their drivers to travel Wednesday morning. Only two trucks arrived in Calais from the English port of Dover, a Calais port spokesman told CNN.

Such as leading UK supermarkets Tesco (TSCDY) And Sainsbury’s (JSAIY) Earlier this week it was warned that if the port chaos was not resolved quickly, they would start some fresh items like lettuce, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and citrus fruits. The industry association responsible for the cold distribution also warned that the extended blockade would cause “significant problems” for the supply chain in January.

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

A UK government minister said on Wednesday it would take days to clear the backlog of building trucks around Dover.

“I hope that HGV [Heavy Goods Vehicles] The channel will be crossed this morning, and so the situation will start to improve slowly, but I think it will take time, “said UK Housing Secretary Robert Jenrik. Speaking to Sky News, he said they do not dispute that the delay For the supply chain, but insisted that “there is no shortage of food supplies.”

The British Retail Consortium, which represents more than 170 UK retailers plus thousands of small businesses, said it was “essential” that trucks start moving faster now that the border has reopened.

“Until the backlog is cleared and the supply chain returns to normal, we anticipate issues with the availability of some fresh goods,” said RW Andrew OP, director of food and sustainability at the BRC.

If Britain does not come to terms with the post-Brexit deal from the EU single market and customs union, the freight crisis for retail businesses comes at the worst moment as Britain breaks out of one of the EU markets and tries to create additional stocks for retail businesses.

Lufthansa said it is investigating whether additional special cargo flights could be offered in the next few days.

“We are also investigating whether a regular flight is possible,” the spokesman said. “This could be with a cargo object, but we are still investigating if we can only use a passenger plane for freight flights.”

The German flag carrier took a similar step as soon as the epidemic began in March, when it launched “an airlift for all Germany” to ensure goods were supplied nationwide. The Cold War move was prompted by American and British aircraft to provide food and other necessities to West Berlin during the Soviet blockade in 1948 and 1949.

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