“A perfect storm”: Supply crisis set to continue as industry experts warn of more shortages and rising prices

  • Industry leaders from food, retail and logistics say Britain’s supply crisis will continue for  months with potential price rises for consumers

  • Supply chain experts cite post-Brexit trading arrangements and new immigration policies among causes of problems both in transport and production.

  • Witnesses gave their evidence today in an extraordinary session of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission which will be used to make recommendations to the Government

  • The Commission heard unanimous calls for temporary work visas to address acute supply issues 

The acute supply issues plaguing Britain are set to continue according to industry experts who today warned of a “very challenging” Christmas among longer term consequences as the supply chain faces a “perfect storm” of problems.
 

In an extraordinary meeting of the cross-party UK Trade and Business Commission, business leaders from The British Retail Consortium, The British Frozen Food Federation and Logistics UK, testified that labour shortages both in transport and production will likely mean reduced choice and potentially higher prices for consumers.
 

The witnesses made assurances that everything will be done to protect consumers, but also confirmed that food producers are facing overall cost increases between 5-10%,  deepening concerns that this could be passed onto shelf prices.
 

Recent figures from the British Retail Consortium, who gave evidence at the session, and research group NielsenIQ revealed a 0.4% month-on-month increase on the price of goods last month alone with mounting pressures from rising commodity and shipping costs as well as Brexit-related red tape cited as driving the increase.
 

The experts cast doubt on the short-term Government strategy to plug holes in the availability of HGV drivers and food production staff by recruiting indiginous workers, stating that British applicants to these jobs are low despite an intense recruitment drive, better wages and improved benefits. 
 

In the short-term they were unanimous in calling for temporary visas for transport workers with Richard Harrow, Chief Executive, British Frozen Food Federation calling it “a perfect storm” and saying, “Unless we get some short term flexibility on visa access, we are in for a rocky time”. Andrew Opie of the British Retail Consortium said the government faces a  choice on allowing overseas food producers to work here or risk “offshoring” parts of Britain's food production industry to Europe.
 

Aodhán Connolly, Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium who chaired this session of the Commission said,

“The witnesses painted a pretty stark picture for the months ahead unless the Government acts quickly. They made it quite clear that red tape and labour shortages from Brexit have exacerbated problems that are being acutely felt across production, processing, manufacturing, retail and of course logistics. "

“The government needs to get a handle on this both in the short and long term and we will be making recommendations based on the evidence we heard today.”

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