As a country we should be more or less self-sufficient
The UK imports 50% of all the food eaten and is reliant on food imports to feed the nation. This has been the case since the 19th century, so it’s nothing new. Remember that during WW2 rationing was introduced to conserve and share food – one egg per week, 2oz of cheese per week etc. – at a time when every available square foot of land was turned over to food production. It took until 1954 before food rationing was removed.
Food imports do not just include finished food items. For example, a pork sausage is made of pork and a number of ingredients such as thyme, coriander, pepper, plus preservatives, almost all of which are imported. The meat is processed, stored and transported using imported CO2, so a shortage of any of these ingredients and chemicals would result in a shortage of sausages.
Is there any reason to stockpile a non perishable item that comes from outwith the EU? Do we think the customs delays will be bad enough to interrupt the supply of these types of items?
Much of what comes from outside of the EU still arrives in the UK via the EU – e.g. it is shipped to Rotterdam or Hamburg first, then travels on by ship or lorry to the UK, so it gets stuck in the same queue as everything else.
Dover currently handles about 5,000 incoming lorries a day. It is a so-called ‘arrive and drive’ port – lorries drive straight off the ferry on to the road network with a minimum of checks. Spending just 2 minutes per lorry will result in long queues on both sides of the Channel. If every lorry has to be inspected and paperwork stamped, then the port’s capacity will shrink drastically – by as much as two thirds. Instead of 5,000 lorries getting through, only 2,000 lorries might get through each day. These will be carrying not only food and ingredients, but also car parts, components, medicines etc. If the government prioritises food, then the factories run out of parts. If they prioritise car parts etc., then the country runs out of food and medicine. Note, this is not a question of goods being delayed for a day or two; the goods simply cannot arrive at all if there is not the capacity to handle them through Customs.
How do you know how much of something the supermarkets tend to hold in their warehouses?
The supermarkets don’t have much in the way of warehouses. When the government says that they should be stockpiling goods, they completely fail to understand that there is not the warehouse capacity in the UK to stockpile food (and in particular chilled foods).
It is fairly easy to estimate how much of certain product groups the supermarkets hold. Fresh produce such as milk if delivered on a daily basis, so they hold no buffer stock. Fresh fruit and vegetables; less than a week’s worth of stock. Next weekend’s vegetables are being ordered today (Saturday), picked on Monday and Tuesday in Europe, transported on Wednesday and arrive in your local supermarket on Thursday and Friday.
Under normal circumstances, the supermarkets hold about 14-days worth of non-perishable goods. The whole business model is to have a high stock turnover, and any products that don’t sell are de-listed and no longer stocked.