UK dairy firms try to count the cost of churn in post-Brexit trade
Country Milk’s trade with the EU has nosedived with the dairy industry particularly badly affected by new customs rules
Dairy firms face a ‘killer combination’ of increased costs, complexity and paperwork required to export products such as butter, cream and cheese to the EU since Brexit. Photograph: Lisa Geoghegan/Alamy
Dairy firms face a ‘killer combination’ of increased costs, complexity and paperwork required to export products such as butter, cream and cheese to the EU since Brexit. Photograph: Lisa Geoghegan/Alamy
Mon 3 May 2021 02.00 EDT
A small error in the paperwork – a box ticked by mistake – and the tanker of butter oil was held at French customs for five days, with veterinary authorities at the border threatening to destroy it. The debacle nearly cost the tanker’s exporter, dairy company County Milk, a six-figure sum. After fraught negotiations, the cargo was eventually repatriated.
Food manufacturers supplying the hospitality and healthcare markets have called for urgent Government support to rescue them from ‘a financial cliff edge’.
A group of 18 trade associations, led by the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), has written to chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak and other Government ministers. They have asked for the following support measures to be put in place for food manufacturers with immediate effect:
Extension of the 12-month Local Authority Business Rates exemption to businesses supplying into the hospitality and foodservice market, using the existing legislative exemption for hardship.
Ongoing capital and tax break allowances to maintain the workforce, prorated depending on how many staff a company can keep employed.
By Ian Quinn2020-12-23T16:45:00+00:00
The heads of 24 trade groups have written to the government demanding compensation for companies hit by the chaos at Dover.
In a letter to Defra secretary George Eustice, the heads of groups including the FDF, Scotland Food & Drink and the Provision Trade Federation described the situation as a “catastrophe”.
The groups said upwards of 10,000 trucks could now be affected by delays, with the government urging hauliers to remain away from Kent despite France ending its two-day border closure.
With fears it may take several days to clear the backlog as drivers undergo compulsory Covid tests, food bosses warned some companies faced being forced out of business unless they received urgent financial support.
UK and France agree deal on mass Covid testing of lorry drivers as travel ban lifts
Mobile units will administer tests to at least 6,000 freight drivers stranded in UK amid hopes of end to ports chaos
22 December 2020 • 9:45pm
Britain struck a deal on Tuesday night for France to lift its travel ban and allow the mass testing of freight drivers in a bid to end the ports chaos.
Mobile units, overseen by Army logistics experts, will administer the tests to at least 6,000 freight drivers stranded in the UK, but Government sources admitted it would take several days to clear the truckers.