What isn’t produced in Britain that we need to stockpile?

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

So, worst case scenario and we crash out with no deal as everyone seems keen to catastrophise, what would be useful to stock up on that isn’t produced here and would have to be imported. Any ideas?

Tea

Of course. And coffee presumably.

Lots. We don’t produce half our food. Look at the country of origin on the canned food in your kitchen right now. If it’s not produced in the uk, stock up. This is a bit of a blunt instrument but it’s a start. I will stock long life milk, tea, coffee and powdered hot choc as well.

Meds wise I will stock paracetamol, ibuprofen, plasters, sore throat lozenges, soluble aspirin, tcp, bandages, cough syrup, burn cream. Make sure you’ve got hot water bottles/heat packs for all the family. Candles, matches, batteries, solar powered lamps and bottled water.

Im not expecting a doomsday scenario, but a period of civil unrest may happen, which I don’t really want my family to venture out in. I drive an electric car so as long as the power is on, we can still get out of London to our rural home if needed. I don’t expect things to get that bad. Most of this stuff we have in stock already, came in handy during a power outage and a mains water leak, both in London.

We import 31% of our food. Even stuff we do produce here, we still import to top up. So even things like beef will be affected.

I'm probably stocked for 6 months at a time. Buy food in, bulk cook and freeze. Then use the frozen stuff and buy fresh to replace so it won't be much different for me with that. But things like snacks for the kids and fresh fruit... I think we will be freezing lots of grapes and they can snack on frozen grapes if fruit becomes a problem.

Tea could be a problem for many people.

Frozen avocado can be found in Iceland, you may want to stock up on that and chocolate covered frozen bananas are tasty.

Well we import more oil and gas then we export but I'm not sure we can stockpile that individually!

I'm planning on eating my neighbours. They're old - they won't be able to get away. But tea seems like an insoluble problem.

I am planning on freezing all my home grown fruit and veg which I normally just compost or give away once we’ve had enough. Making sure I’ve got seeds at home for planting out as well next year.

What about stuff like toothpaste, do we make that here.

I thought we imported more than 31% so that’s good news.

By the time you knock off all the food wasted and thrown away, the fact we’re probably about 10% overweight, that 31% figure we need is probably goes down to only about 15% we actually need to import, right?

We grow tea! In Cornwall. £12.50 for 14 servings, which you could probably eke out x 2 so 44p per cuppa. Their business will go through the roof if people can’t get hold of PG Tips.

I've been thinking a bit about this and think that actually for us it'll be changing our lifestyle/ what we eat sooner rather than later so we don't need to stockpile but so the kids for eg are used to eating easily available foods. Which is something I'm not very good at at the mo, esp as we are a family of multiple allergies (dairy, egg, gluten, soya, coconut and some other minor ones) which makes me lazy as lots of things take effort on a school night! I have spent last winter and this spring learning how to grow things though, the next stage for me is to learn how to grow from seed rather than baby plants. Good to know re tea in Cornwall!

OK - my DH is very closely connected to imports/exports and this is what he says:

If we Brexit with no deal then we will work in the WTO which means 10% trade tariffs which means that the pound will drop to partially compensate. This translates to a 3-5% price rise in most goods. The main things to be affected will be perishable imports such as fresh flowers, French cheese and danish bacon. You get the drift.

No real need to stockpile non perishable items but you might want to fill your fridge and freezer until the import infrastructure settles down. Buy frozen fruit and veg as these will be the first to be affected and supplies might be quite scarce until the supply chain sorts itself out. Maybe get in a month's supply.

Buy a European car before March as they will be more expensive afterwards. Don't go to Europe on holiday next summer.

But this is his personal opinion he also thinks the Daiky Mail are "-&/&:):&/@- and he may be wrong.

You'd be surprised.
Chicken ready meal or sandwich might be made in the UK, but the chicken comes from Thailand or Brazil.
A lot of food additives in processed foods come from China.
Fruit in jam - Poland.
Breaded / coated chicken products - Poland.
Raw chicken and Pork - Netherlands or Poland. Brazil for some raw frozen chicken.
Fish and seafood - even if caught in the UK, is often filleted / shelled /skinned in China.
UK reared meat - fed on soya / cereals from Canada and Europe. Same with many dairy cattle
Lamb is grass fed, but a lot imported from New Zealand
That's as well as the obvious stuff like chocolate, canned fish, exotic fruit.

Arabella fabulous sensible post with a few pointers

^^

The table in this article shows how much the WTO tariffs can vary just within one product category, cheeses: 14-68%. All more than 10%, some a lot more.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/18/dairy-products-may-become-luxuries-after-uk-leaves-eu

This KPMG graphic shows traditional breakfast ingredients:
home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2017/07/brexit-how-exposed-is-your-business-to-wto-tariffs.html

I'm wary of an estimate of just 10% on everything after seeing that.

The impact could vary quite widely depending what a given household eats.

@ArabellaHorseyHorsey

Thank you, that's the first factual advice I've come across. We live in a small flat and i like a few days prep for other reasons, but haven't got room to store much at all.

It will be a lot easier for people who are robust and can manage with whatever still happens to be in the shops, but people with multiple allergies, ASD limited eaters; and beyond the basic first aid items mentioned above, those whose skin is only okay with very specific products or who find certain supplements make a difference between managing with their health problems and not, they should really try and stock up.

The new HMRC computer systems aren't ready, and other countries, including the Netherlands and Sweden, have announced recruitment drives for customs staff to deal with Brexit, yet Britain itself apparently hasn't yet. There are too many indicators for significant delays. (And those in turn can have a knock on effect on smaller and fragile businesses, and if a quantity of those can't keep trading, on the wider economy.)

WINE!!!
Tea
Anchovies
Turmeric
Pepper
Ginger
Lentils/chick peas
Rice
Garlic (although I have grown it here)

NHS staff

FWIW, I will start to fill up my freezer after Christmas and I will stockpile dried legumes, ie chickpeas, lentils etc. I will buy items with the longest shelf life just in case. I might look out for a cheap bread maker this year as well, so that I can stockpile flour and yeast.

I had intended to turn the back garden into a vegetable patch but this summer has baked it hard. I really should start my broccoli and sprout seedlings soon, though.

Not sure what to do about dairy. Freeze milk and butter, I suppose.

I can see a rise in veganism. I live close to one of those deluxe organic farms with pampered cows and those steaks are already £20 each so god knows how much they'll be next year - if, indeed the farm is still going.

I will stockpile water filters, tea and coffee. The stuff I'd normally use anyway.

I have a dehydrator and a vacuum sealer. They weren't expensive. Lost stuff in the freezer three times in this house due to bad luck power related events- first an old freezer died just before I gave birth full of all the food I'd prepared. Second, a workman cut the power when doing our kitchen. Thirdly, dh didn't shut the freezer door properly in this recent heatwave . I don't believe in bad luck or fate etc but I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket - I know what it's like when all your carefully stored food goes.

A little stash of powdered milk and eggs- yuk generally but might be handy.

Wine. Wine. More wine.

In case it all goes tits up I will be in a happy wine blur.

More seriously.

Medicines.

Also note that fruit and veg grown in the UK relies on migrant workers to pick it.