How dependent is the UK on the EU for food?

France’s decision to close the border with the United Kingdom to stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus has highlighted the importance of the Dover-Calais route for food supply.

French residents and citizens with recent negative coronavirus tests will be able to travel starting Wednesday, and truck drivers can travel after a rapid lateral flow test.

So how dependent is the UK on the EU for food? And should British buyers be concerned?

About 30% of all the food we eat in the UK comes from the European Union, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) industry group.

Britain imports almost half of its fresh vegetables and most of its fruit, mainly from the EU, and that’s where the potential problem lay..

During the summer months the UK can grow many of its own produce, such as lettuce and mushy berries like raspberries and strawberries, but when the weather turns colder, Britain is forced to rely much more on imports from the UK. EU.

In January, for example, the UK imports 90% of the lettuce it needs from the EU. But in June, Britain produces 95% of its own salad leaves.

Tomatoes follow the same pattern. In January, the United Kingdom buys 85% of the tomatoes from the European bloc, but by the summer it is growing 60% of what the country needs.

By winter, half of all UK food is imported, according to the Food and Drink Federation.

It says that while there are no concerns about the food supply over Christmas, shoppers may have started to see gaps in the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables starting next week, if the UK and France had not “quickly reestablished. “your links.

When it comes to fresh food, the cheapest and most efficient way to get produce to the UK is by refrigerated trucks, using the ‘roll-on roll-off’ method of transport.

Food is loaded onto the truck at a farm in Spain, for example, and driven to Calais, where it directly “rolls” onto a ferry or the Eurotunnel and “leaves” when it arrives in Dover in the UK before heading to its end. destination. These trucks are loaded with UK goods which are then shipped through the Channel to EU customers.

The driver will keep the truck – what is known as “accompanied loading” – and so there were some problems in the last few days.

France was concerned about drivers coming from the UK with the new variant of the coronavirus. Thousands of trucks got stuck in Kent waiting to return to the EU.

In the past, the UK has resorted to other means when fresh produce has been threatened.

In 2018, a summer heat wave meant the UK was eating more salad than usual, but warmer weather also made it difficult to grow lettuce.

Thousands of iceberg lettuces were duly shipped to the UK from Los Angeles. But this is an expensive method of restocking supplies and it is doubtful that companies would want to pay a premium for shipping at a time when they could face tariffs to buy other EU products depending on a Brexit deal.

Last year, the UK exported 14.2 billion pounds of food and drink to the EU, out of a total of 23.6 billion pounds worldwide.

The Food and Drink Federation says the UK’s biggest exports are products like whiskey, salmon, chocolate, cheese and gin.

The UK also exports a large amount of the meat it produces to the EU. The National Farmers Union says that 82% of the UK’s beef exports go to the bloc. The UK sells 30% of its lamb overseas, most of which goes to the EU.

In the EU, Ireland is the UK’s largest customer. It bought £ 4bn worth of food and drink in the UK in 2019, although that was a 3.8% drop from the previous year.

France bought £ 2.3bn worth of British goods last year, an increase of 3.5%, while the Netherlands imported £ 1.7bn worth of UK goods, an increase of 5.2% .

The UK found itself in the eye of a perfect storm: France closed its border to the transport of goods from the UK; winter means the UK is more dependent on the EU for fresh food; Britain will stop trading under EU rules on December 31; some British ports are facing severe delays; the coronavirus has changed shopping habits and it is Christmas so the demand is high.

However, major UK supermarkets say they have plenty of supplies, following the coronavirus panic purchases earlier this year, and are encouraging people to ‘shop normally’.

Tesco said: “We have been building stocks of key products before the Christmas peak and we are working closely with our shippers and suppliers to continue supplying products to our stores.”

However, he warned that supplies of some fresh produce such as lettuce and citrus could have been reduced “by the end of this week.” – if no agreement had been reached.

Sainsbury’s said it was looking for alternative ways to source produce from Europe, a spokesperson says: “If nothing changes, we will start to see gaps in the next few days in lettuce, some salad leaves, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus, all of which are imported. from the continent at this time of year. “

We could, although there certainly wouldn’t be the variety consumers are used to. The National Farmers Union says the UK imports 45% of its vegetables, the vast majority of which come from the EU.

Britain also buys 84% ​​of its fruit from abroad, although it is less dependent on the EU for these products.

However, Spain is the UK’s largest supplier of fruit, accounting for 19% of imports.

There are certain things we can grow here in the UK regardless of the weather. For example, the UK produces 70% of cabbage and cauliflower supplies in January, and increases to 90% in June.

However, that seems to weigh more heavily on cabbage at the moment as Tesco and Sainsbury’s have warned that cauliflowers could be one of the vegetables affected by the disruption..

In the meantime, veggies like rhubarb will always thrive here since it likes cool, moist soil.

But if difficulties continue on the border with France, or if a Brexit deal makes it more expensive for some products to enter the UK, people may be forced to eat whatever is in season.

This will undoubtedly please some like environmentalists, as it means that food will not have to travel that far while maintaining a cap on emissions.

However, it may not be to everyone’s liking.