Post-Brexit import checks risk further pushing up food prices – industry group

theguardian.com:

The UK’s post-Brexit border strategy risks further pushing up food prices, according representatives of Britain’s fresh produce industry.

Traders in the food supply chain are warning they will not be able to absorb the extra cost of charges levied for import checks on goods entering the country from the EU and the rest of the world, due to be introduced in the new year.

Estimated additional annual costs of more than £10m stemming from import charges would have to be passed on to consumers, fuelling food inflation just as prices are thought to have peaked.

The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), an industry body that claims to speak for 70% of the UK’s fresh produce supply chain – including businesses that produce, package, move and sell fresh fruit, vegetables, cut flowers and plants – has written to ministers to share its members’ concerns about the UK’s post-Brexit border strategy.

In a highly critical submission to the government, the FPC accused ministers of adopting “an outdated and highly inefficient border solution which fails to meet the needs of a modern progressive industry and simply adds cost for consumers”.

The trade body, which has about 650 members, said the current border proposals would add cost, delays and disruption to imports of fresh produce and could lead to gaps on retailers’ shelves, similar to those seen earlier this year.

It said “anticipated additional costs, delay and disruption” for checks on perishable goods would “materially contribute towards consumer inflation, business on-costs, food waste, and carbon emissions”.

Unexpected increases to delivery times are particularly problematic for perishable items and could have a big impact, the FPC said, as the UK imports about two-thirds of the fruit and