Industry experts from Britain’s food and drinks businesses have said that companies may have to pay large fines if they cannot work together with other rival businesses.
The UK will indeed experience shortages of certain foods in the event of a “disastrous” no-deal Brexit, with “serious disruption” expected for months, the country’s food and drink lobby warned today (7 August).
“The food sector is absolutely clear that a no-deal exit is a disastrous outcome for us, but we’ve never said that the country is going to starve,” Tim Rycroft, corporate affairs director at the Food and Drink Federation, told BBC Radio 4.
It is key that collaboration between big companies is managed to prevent harming consumers. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) have told the BBC that the government had not yet confirmed that companies would be able to work together to direct food supplies if there were delays as a result of coming out of the EU.
Tim Rycroft, also said: “Competition law is important, but in the event of no-deal disruption, if the government wants the food supply chain to work together to tackle likely shortages – to decide where to prioritise shipments – they will have to provide cast-iron written reassurances that competition law will not be strictly applied to those discussions.”
“We asked for these reassurances at the end of last year and, despite support from Defra, we’re still waiting. Hopefully, now that Michael Gove is in charge of all no-deal planning, we can make progress.”
“There will be selective shortages and they will be to some extent random because it depends on which trucks get through,” he added on BBC Radio 4.
Great Britain is due to leave the European Union on October 31, and as of this moment, there is a significant change of leaving with a ‘no deal’ unless of course Parliament blocks Brexit under a no deal.
