Oh, its always Brexit ain't it! Archived Message
Posted by Chris Rogers on March 2, 2023, 8:58 pm, in reply to "Brexit is an important factor in UK food security Semantics rule in regard to Russia and energy cost"
Sorry John but Tim Watkins and Tom Morgan usually focus of energy costs, which have been on the rise since before Covid and actually have a dramatic impact on foodstuff costs and supply. Further, and in relation to the supposed Tomato shortage, the value of UK imports was the same in 2021 as in 2016 and way below peak imports of 2017 and 2018 and yet all we hear about is a lack of fruit and veg in the UK Big Four supermarkets, who, have been purchasing far fewer tomatoes period. Strangely, local markets in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypool don't seem to have a tomato shortage, although not many people visit them in South Wales, despite costs on many occasions being lower than Supermarket prices - maybe folks should do as we did in the 80s, namely shop around instead of trying to do all shopping in a single car journey visit. As for other issues, well Hortidaily suggests as far as Tomatoes go the UK is crap at packaging and distribution, unlike Dutch counterparts, whilst Dutch tomatoes have been growing in cost and losing market share to Morocco, this despite the fact Holland has large gas reserves, unlike the UK. By the way, presently in Japan and the USA they have a fresh egg shortage, should we blame this on Brexit also or place the finger where it should be placed, namely an avian flu outbreak in both countries - oh, and even without avian flu egg costs were rising, as were all foodstuff costs in Asia - no doubt Brussels/the EU is immune to this and costs are falling or maybe, just maybe reality is beginning to bite.
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