Grocer magazine: Tesco chairman warns of short-term food shortages after Brexit

[SupplyChainHusband]

A story just caught my eye from the grocer magazine (which is a high quality influential industry magazine focusing on all things grocery). It's dated last Friday.

www.thegrocer.co.uk/brexit/tesco-chairman-warns-of-short-term-food-shortages-after-brexit/649458.article#.X408LpmsuGw.twitter

Tesco’s chairman John Allan has warned of short-term fresh food shortages for up to “a few months” after the Brexit transition period ends in January.

“We can’t rule out the possibility that if there is dislocation at the ports of entry to the UK there will be some shortages of some items of fresh food, at least for a time,” Allan said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Friday.

Allan insisted there was no need for the public to stockpile, “but there may be some things we have to learn to do without for a few weeks, possibly a few months after Brexit,” he said.

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The article goes on to flag that the average imported food item will face tariffs of around 20%. (If anyone is wondering, most of our food stuff in the first quarter is imported).

If you can't access the article but would like to, try using incognito mode in chrome.

Thanks @SupplyChainHusband, v interesting

Great. [Sarcastic]

Right, I am off to cut a hole in a kitchen side panel for a plug to get this freezer set up. Ex's freezer is arriving tomorrow. Wednesday is shopping for frozen food. Half term will be batch cooking.

Actually I need to add:

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH

And several swearwords to the last message.

Freezer is now ready to be plugged in.

There are, however, several tools and toolboxes scattered over the bedroom and kitchen floor. Why is the tool you need always in the back bottom box? Got a click and collect booked for Friday.

Johnson waffling is making the thought of packing away easier...to escape!

Well done on getting your additional freezer in @BlackeyedSusan

Started conversation with DCs today about eating what is available and not wasting food, we don't do too badly on that front but can and might have to do more. They are old enough to understand, DS13was refusing to eat sweet potato, I know he isn't keen but it was in the veg box. He has taken the 'I'd rather go hungry' approach. I am not trying to scare them, we will have food come January but it may not be their favourite and if it is fresh we make the most of it

Thanks @lexloofah I am enjoying filling it too.

Sweet potato got hidden in curry. They are quite good as they last ages in the fridge. As do butternut squash.

I've got a freezer full of frozen fruit and veg, but not so many tinned things. Might stock up on some tinned potatoes, carrots and some tinned fruit.

Good luck with finding them. They have been difficult to get hold of recently. I did manage to pick up sweetcorn in Asda which was unobtainable on click and collect.

I had a panic yesterday about Halloween stuff not arriving with my shopping tomorrow, and rushed down to Tesco to buy stuff - suddenly there were rows of 20p tins of sliced carrots! Really annoying when for weeks they've been unavailable for online ordering, and a few days ago they only had the 60p tins in-store, today there was literally 3-4 shelves full of the cheaper tins of carrots and corn.

I resisted the urge to buy loads, and just picked up 4 tins - mainly because I can afford to buy the 60p tins, so feel I should leave the 20p tins for others who need them.

Sweetcorn also seemed to be plentiful in-store, which is surprising since its been unavailable for deliveries for weeks.

I picked up some dried sultanas - DC hate dried fruit, but they love the Asda rocky road bites which contain sultanas, so I figured we'd have a go at making our own.

I've also bought some tins of pie filling - I know the fruit content isn't huge, but it all helps - and warm apple pie with ice cream is a lovely treat for dark winter nights (we have the pastry mixes you just add water too so we won't need to use up our butter stash)

Was it the Prince's pie filling @EveLe? We tried that and really rated it. Was lovely.

Yes @AldiIsla we've only tried the apple so far, but it was really nice, with a pastry mix it makes a fab shelf stable treat - the pastry mixes have several months date on them. I'm going to try the red cherry next just to make sure we like it so I have time to stock up before January if we do.

I haven't tried apple yet, just cherry and summer fruits. I'll have to grab one.

We've tried them as a crumble too. It's nice when a prep becomes a regular feature on the weeks menu. Quick and easy after a Sunday roast.

Pre Brexit and Pre covid seems like such a long time ago.

On a non food note I've noticed our san pro and quite a few toiletries come from Europe.

Worth checking where things come from so you know what to stock up on.

I've been thinking more about Covid than Brexit so far so may have to change my approach.

my preferred sanpro was out of stock in Asda. I have materials for reusable.

When I don't have room in my fridge Blackeyed I leave out my onions/squash/sweet pots/ bags of potatoes in my shed and they last ages.

Great idea, going to take my potatoes to the car and just keep the couple I need until I have sorted the fridge, again.

Mum used to store the onions she grew in a net bag hanging in the garage.

Remember my uncle many years ago used to do that and every time we visited we received a veg gift bag. Didn't realise then that many years after would be really pleased if I received something like that now. Yes sometimes store stuff in the boot too as it's quite cold again so optimum temp for storing stash.

I've started checking a few things this morning and a lot of Tesco own brand products seem to come from Dublin.

Possibly a stupid question but is this likely to be affected?

Who bloody knows? But given there may need to be a border in the Irish sea I would say probably. Better safe than sorry and get what you can't do without.

@BlackeyedSusan that's what I was thinking. Dublin is Eire anyway so

If it is all sorted out, my shopping bill in 2021 will only be about 3p a week!

Can't believe we are two months away and still nothing is finalised.

They're just not even trying are they? If they wanted a deal, they could have sorted it out months ago.