Brexit chaos fuels fresh food crisis

Wider gaps are appearing on UK supermarket shelves including staples such as broccoli, tomatoes, lettuces and cheese as new Brexit rules hampered lorry drivers bringing in food from the EU, MailOnline can reveal today.

Cauliflower packs, citrus fruit, aubergines, courgettes, mushrooms, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries as well as products like brie and mozzarella are showing as unavailable at major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and online giant Ocado.

The problem at food production plants of staff going sick or needing to shield or self-isolate is an issue for the entire food industry, particularly chicken and red meat processors, while a ban on flights from South Africa and South America is also believed to hitting the supply of good such as wine, fruit and vegetables.

Ministers are preparing to allow supermarket lorries to skip queues at the Channel ports as fears of disruption to food supply chains into the UK intensify while there also delays of clothes and chocolate from Germany. 

And it is no easier for British businesses trying to export their good with Scottish seafood firms are just ‘days from collapse’ and forced to leave fish rotting on the docks because of border chaos since leaving the EU, industry leaders have warned. 

Experts have warned that supplies are being squeezed by post-Brexit red tape at ports including France demanding that truckers have Covid tests which can take 72 hours to give a result before being let into Europe disturbing the flow of containers through Dover and Folkestone. 

Britain’s ports were already under huge pressure before January 1 after Covid-19 shattered the system for shipping goods around the world causing a shortage of containers and supply chain problems from covid-hit China, Vietnam and Japan hitting Christmas presents and electronics, including the PS5 and Apple headphones.

The container shortage was exacerbated by a lack of staff across the global supply chain – including sailors, hauliers and warehouse workers – due to people falling ill or having to quarantine because of coronavirus. This led to shipping firms falling behind when it came to retrieving empty containers from European ports and taking them back to factories in Asia. 

The chaos at the ports came as:  

• Boris Johnson was urged to double his target for 14million vaccinations by mid-February today amid signs brutal lockdowns have finally started to curb the coronavirus outbreak;
• Cambridge University researchers believe the R rate – the average number of people each infected person passes the disease onto – may have dipped to as low as 0.6 in London and the South East. The figure must be below one for an outbreak to shrink.
• Another 48,682 infections were recorded yesterday, down 7.5 per cent on the same day last week, but deaths in the past 24 hours rose by 1,248 – a 7.4 per cent climb from last week’s 1,162;

Scottish seafood firms are just ‘days from collapse’ unless emergency cash is paid out to compensate for the Brexit border chaos, industry leaders have warned.

Desperate bosses said they face imminent closure as they urged Boris Johnson to deliver on his pledge to finally support the struggling sector.

A third of fishing boats in Scotland are currently tied up at harbours and crewmen are forced to stay on land without pay.

The industry is estimated to be losing £1million a day. A lack of buyers has seen many species of Scottish seafood plummet in price by around 50 per cent this week.

Fishermen have been unable to export their produce on time following the UK’s departure from the European Union due to delays with the new customs procedures.

Jamie McMillan, managing director of Lochfyne Langoustines, has threatened to dump tons of rotting seafood at Downing Street next week if the problems are not resolved.

He said: ‘We can’t continue to let this happen for another week because we will be out of business.’

His comment came after shipping firm DFDS announced a further delay in exports of Scottish consignments of seafood to the EU. It halted shipments last week after delays in getting new paperwork for the EU border posts in France.

Some loads which would normally take 24 hours to reach France from Glasgow are taking three to five days to get there, reducing the freshness and value of the food.=

Last week food industry experts and the Cabinet minister with responsibility for Brexit, Michael Gove, warned that problems at the ports are likely to escalate from today as the number of trucks going through Dover and the Channel Tunnel rises to normal levels after a New Year lull as the French step up enforcement of post-Brexit paperwork.

Freight expert John Shirley said: ‘The chaos has begun. Organising even the simplest load to Europe has become an almost impossible task due to the mountain of red tape brought in on January 1.’

The Road Haulage Association said there are already logjams and this situation will escalate when border controls with France are stepped up from today.

The group estimates that of the 2,000 outbound lorries a day through Dover and the Channel Tunnel last week, one in five were turned back. It said problems will surge as these numbers increase to the normal 6,000 a day. 

Its managing director for policy, Rod McKenzie, said: ‘Drivers are being turned back for a variety of reasons, including not having a valid Covid test. At the same time, they are being told the paperwork has not been done satisfactorily’. 

Mr Gove admitted: ‘In the weeks ahead, we expect there will be significant additional disruption.’

Commercial director at fresh produce wholesaler Nature’s Choice, Vernon Mascarenhas, said: ‘We will begin to see gaps on shelves from this Wednesday. The only way to resolve it is for the Government to sort out the paperwork issue. This should have been at the top of the Government’s agenda, but it did not even cross their radar.’   

Last month the French government banned HGV drivers from crossing the English Channel in a desperate bid to prevent the spread of ‘mutant’ coronavirus detected in London and the South and East of England.

The unprecedented ban left thousands of lorry drivers stranded in Kent during the Christmas period and led to clashes with police at the border – only resolved when the UK gave drivers lateral flow tests which take 20 minutes to produce a positive or negative result.

But now the French government is worried about the accuracy of the tests and has called on the UK to introduce a fully saliva-based PCR test for the truckers, according to the Times. 

Ministers, who are already drawing up plans to allow supermarket lorries to bypass queues at the Channel ports amid fears of food shortages in the UK, are concerned that the demand will result in gridlock at the border again. 

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) said that drivers already queue for up to eight hours in the Waterbrook Park estate while waiting for approval for border paperwork. The park is being used for customs checks until March, when the massive 1,700-capacity Kent lorry park will then take over operations.

A spokesperson said: ‘Trucks are sat there for hours at a time and not able to pass go. It’s no surprise to us. The systems they’re using are untested.

‘They’ve had no time whatsoever to get used to a raft of new processes. It’s a perfect storm of the worrying delays that were going to happen. The worry is that the capacity and volumes are below usual and it’s quieter than usual.’ 

It is thought that massive queues are being caused by a lack of staff to process paperwork at the site, with traffic at Dover having increased in the past week and now running at two-thirds of the normal rate for the time of year.

Meanwhile, Brexit disruption has lead to deserted ‘ghost ferries’ leaving for France, with boats on the Dover to Calais route which should be filled with HGVs and drivers eerily quiet – while many trucks are being held up at factories, warehouses and truck stops across the UK, rather than heading to Europe.  

Certain vehicles will be given access to open lanes on the M20 in Kent during delays at the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel terminal in order to cross the Channel, refill and return as quickly as possible.

The consultation document issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says these are ’emergency measures only to be used in extremis and for the shortest time possible’.

The scheme would be triggered once congestion on the approach roads to Dover reaches eight hours, and deliveries to UK supermarkets fall below 75 per cent of the schedule for two consecutive days.     

It came as truckers queued for up to eight hours for their border paperwork to be signed off at a beleaguered Brexit lorry park in Kent.

Photos show drivers left waiting in the rain in a giant queue at the Waterbrook Park estate off the M20 in Ashford, which is being used for customs checks until the end of February.

In the documents, Defra said ‘the potential for further disruption remains high’ due to the pandemic and new border processes and procedures resulting from the end of the Brexit transition period.

It went on: ‘The combination of these unprecedented factors is likely to contribute to delays at the border which could, in turn, prevent the speedy return of empty goods vehicles to the EU where they can collect more food.

‘Such delays are likely to have a direct impact on the UK’s food supply.’

In a further blow to Boris Johnson over the UK’s trade borders, a senior Northern Ireland politician warned that Brexit rules that have left supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland empty of fresh food risk undermining the Good Friday Agreement. 

DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson urged the Government to intervene to resolve the issues that have hindered the flow of food products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland since the end of the transition period.

Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer and Tesco have all faced supply issues after the new customs paperwork came in following the transition period ending on January 1. 

Fresh fruit, vegetables and chilled meat are among the products most affected as many food suppliers face delays on getting goods into the country.

Defra is also proposing to fast track Gibraltar-bound groceries, as it relies on the UK for about half of its food supply. 

It comes as Food and Drink Federation chief executive Ian Wright expressed concern about the potential for delays at the Channel ports as the numbers of lorries making the crossing picked up over the coming months.

‘It will get worse. Currently volumes across the short straits are at about 2,000 lorries. They should be around 10,000. So the opportunity for the scale of concerns to rise is huge,’ he said.

British Retail Consortium director Andrew Opie also issued a warning over disruption to goods crossing the Channel, saying ‘it will get worse before it gets better’.

He said he is on watch for any impact this week and onwards, with British businesses ‘still not 100% prepared’ for the changes as the French step up customs checks.

Rod McKenzie, director of policy at the Road Haulage Association (RHA), said the delays In Kent were ‘shocking’ as the industry body branded the situation a ‘perfect storm’. 

Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy said: ‘We have seen some limited disruption into the Republic of Ireland and into the North of Ireland but we’re working very closely with Government on both sides of the Irish Sea to smooth the flow of products.’ 

HMRC said the average wait time is 65 minutes in Ashford but that drivers are warned to expect delays and are encouraged to pre-book a space online. 

After the lengthy wait to have their documents approved, frustrated truckers then need to be tested for coronavirus before they are allowed to proceed over the Channel.

The delayed, 1,700-capacity Sevington Lorry Park will take over the task from Waterbrook in March, as fears continue to grow over long delays as a result of the UK’s exit from the EU, with business chiefs admitting things will ‘get worse before they get better’. 

Under Brexit rules which came into force on January 1, hauliers headed to the EU need to obtain a Kent Access Permit and complete the correct paperwork for their cargo, or else they could be fined.

It comes after chaotic scenes over Christmas saw thousands of lorries trapped in Kent when France closed its border with Britain due to the discovery of a new fast-spreading Covid variant in the UK.

Posting a photo on Twitter yesterday, Mr McKenzie of the RHA wrote: ‘Ashford truck stop today with drivers queuing for up to eight hours to get their border paperwork cleared then having to get COVID test afterwards for France.’ 

A spokesperson for the association said: ‘Trucks are sat there for hours at a time and not able to pass go. It’s no surprise to us. The systems they’re using are untested.

‘Everything has been last minute. They’ve had no time whatsoever to get used to a raft of new processes. It’s a perfect storm of the worrying delays that were going to happen.

‘The worry is that the capacity and volumes are below usual and it’s quieter than usual. We’re really, really concerned about what happens when volumes are returned to normal.’

It is thought that the queues are being caused by a lack of staff to process paperwork checks at the site.

A HMRC spokesperson said: ‘HMRC has set up five inland border facilities across the country for hauliers to use. Drivers are encouraged to pre-book their space at an inland border facility by using our online service, which will allow them to see how busy each site is in advance so that they can avoid delays.  

‘With a majority of drivers using Ashford Waterbrook, this has led to longer waiting times and we have advised drivers to expect delays.

‘Current site data has shown that the average wait time is 65 minutes. However, any driver concerned about the wait time may choose to visit an alternative location.’

Traffic at Dover has increased in the last week and is now running at two thirds of the normal rate for the time of the year, according to the Port of Dover.

Yesterday a three and a half mile queue of lorries had built up on the M20 due to Operation Brock, according to motorists. 

The transport management system, which was originally devised to cope with the possible fallout of a no-deal Brexit, queues lorries in the left hand lane of the M20 – allowing other vehicles to continue flowing smoothly. 

In the Kent village of Sevington, a ‘glut’ of lorries were reported to be clogging up roads in the area.

The sleepy parish, home to just over 300 people, is surrounded by the Waterbrook Park site and the partially operational giant post-Brexit Sevington Lorry Park, where Covid-19 testing is taking place.

According to figures from Sevington South councillor, Paul Bartlett, 690 lorries had passed through the Waterbrook site in the 24 hours up to 9pm last night. 

A further 1,190 people had used the Sevington Covid testing site. 

Cllr Bartlett said: ‘There’s a lack of communication between various agencies and a lack of communication when traffic is moved between the two sites unfortunately.

‘It’s important to make sure that there’s not a glut of them at the same time.’ 

He added that the queues around the village yesterday began at 6.30pm and lasted two hours.

Earlier this week, work began on yet another Kent lorry park as diggers carved up farmland above the White Cliffs of Dover for a new post-Brexit customs facility.

Once complete, the site in Guston, near Dover, will open as a customs checkpoint facility, with the ability to hold 1,200 lorries, should there be delays at the ports similar to those seen last month. 

The sites in Guston and Sevington are set to be used for post-Brexit customs checks to prevent delays at nearby ports – with three other sites in Kent set to also be up and running by July.

But villagers are up in arms over at Guston, referred to as the Dover White Cliffs site, amid fears it will replace Manston Airport as the main holding bay for lorries in the event of cross-Channel delays. 

Once up and running, the 70-acre Dover White Cliffs site will carry out checks for the Port of Dover, while Sevington will monitor Eurotunnel checks. 

Work on the Kent coast comes after thousands of lorries trapped were trapped in the county last month when France closed its border to Britain.

Lorry drivers were forced to park up at Manston Airport, where there is provision for 4,000 HGVs, as well as Ashford International Lorry Park, which has space for 200, while the M20 was also used as a holding bay under Operation Stack. 

Meanwhile, Kent Police has revealed it has issued more than 407 fines to HGV drivers who failed to obtain a valid Kent Access Permit before entering the county.

A further 152 HGV drivers have breached traffic regulation orders, including attempting to bypass Operation Brock.

Assistant Chief Constable Claire Nix of Kent Police said: ‘Whilst the majority of HGV drivers travelling to Europe via the Port of Dover or Eurotunnel are entering the county with a valid Kent Access Permit in place, there are still too many who we are having to stop, fine and turn back to their point of origin.

‘If this trend continues then it could potentially lead to traffic disruption here in Kent, where the volume of freight is expected to increase significantly over the next few weeks.’