FDBusiness.com

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA), the leading trade association for the meat and meat products industry in the UK, has warned the Government’s uncompromising threats of a no-deal Brexit are frightening continental buyers, who are refusing to agree long term supply contracts with British meat exporters.

According to the BNPA, European buyers considering buying British meat are now being confronted with multiple risks which they are not prepared to take. Chief among them is the possibility that they may well be hit with tariffs as high as 65% on certain imports that are due for delivery after 31 October. Committing to any orders or supply contracts that extend after the Brexit date therefore makes no sense whatsoever to customers in Europe and, indeed, in the rest of the world.

If this continues, it could herald the start of a structural and long-term decline in the nation’s farming capacity and heritage, cautions the BNPA. “Reduced orders from the UK’s biggest and closest trading partner (which are not easily and quickly replicated elsewhere) will filter all the way back to UK farmers who will bear the brunt of this loss of trade. It will put many out of business and, once they’re gone, it won’t be easy to re-establish those farm businesses,” the BMPA points out.