Prepping for Brexit thread

Nargleblast wrote: »

I hear you, maryb , and now I think is a good time to revisit the purpose and theme of this thread as stated in post 1, I.e. what preps can be made to make things easier, less expensive and less disruptive when Brexit does happen. I would advise anyone who wishes to debate the pros and cons, the rights and wrongs etc that there is an active Brexit thread on the Discussion Time forum which covers just about everything Brexit related, and the regulars there are more than happy to debate with fresh blood.

Hi

I tend to agree, furthermore, it must be remembered that any form of contingency planning must really be based on a two axis chart plotting impact vs probability ... and that's what's being overlooked by so many when discussing preparations for Brexit - asking the basic questions ....

- Is the Impact of not being able to buy something in particular high, or low?
...
- Is the Probability of not being able to buy something in particular high, or low?

If both the impact & probability are deemed high, simply build a stock of those items to mitigate the impact, everything else can be seen as a lower priority ... remember, most foodstuff & other goods have an alternative which would be acceptable to most people & most goods sourced from the EU can be re-sourced from other countries, so anything which would suffer a serious disruption would likely only do so in the short term until retailers sort out their own supply chains ....

Most posting on these threads have a contingency stock for various reasons, so why is Brexit seen as being a bigger issue than (say) being snowed in or being ill for a couple of months? ...

Ourselves, well we might build a larger than normal stock of Italian tinned tomatoes,dried pasta & olive oil amongst a few other items on the basis that there may be a short-term logistics issue and forgo a number of imported perishable fresh fruit, salad & veg if not available in the UK because of no alternative source or seasonality issues, but really, things must be seen & placed into context ...

We buy our meat from local butchers and usually know the farms & farmers that it came from & the vast majority of fresh veg is bought directly from the farm or local market - a good proportion of what we eat grows within a few miles of where I'm sitting now ... it's only really things like fresh citrus fruit & tomatoes (etc) that we'd see any reasonable likelihood of having a short-term supply issue on, but as supply from alternative sources (Morocco, USA, Israel, South Africa etc) are readily available as well as there really being no particular hardship in considering seasonal foods in a old-fashioned way ... 'seasonal' ... just modify the weekly menu & consume what's available!

HTH
Z

oceanspirit wrote: »

Does anyone on this thread volunteer for foodbanks?

Just wondering what help will be available to people who are unable to stock up ie those who are using foodbanks already and how foodbanks will cope with their usual demand plus extra with likely far fewer donations?

Do foodbanks have a plan?

What can we do to help?

Foodbanks rely on donations.

You'd have to ask the Trussel Trust what plans it has to deal with the scenario you're describing, or contact your local foodbank to ask them if it's an independent one.

I had a delivery from ASDA with organic Extra Virgin olive oil at 2.50. The Sun leaked a Government plan saying that processed food would be stockpiled, the Guardian followed the next day. Did another ASDA order same day, the identical product was up to 3.24.

Frankly, I don't believe that supermarkets would ever NOT seize an opportunity to make a profit. Also, if suppliers can't suddenly increase the amount of food they are packaging, making or importing, then supermarkets will use price as a control. If the price goes up, only the people who can afford the price rise will buy the product and demand falls.

It does seem to me, that Remainers get challenged everywhere and too many ludicrous claims by politicians and Leavers get accepted as being gospel.

Example being Governor of the Bank of England. He was born in Canada, yes. He went to Oxford twice, is a British citizen and has a British wife, yet politicians and Leavers alike show their ignorance with abuse at him as a foreigner, daily.

Anything originating outside of the UK is at risk of being scarce. Not only that, there would be increased demand for the 60% of food we do produce here. Since we can't produce enough anyway, people thinking that British food would instantly be bountiful, are wide of the mark.

The whole Blitz spirit rhetoric is astonishing.

Re: shelf life.. because consumers don't want chemicals in food, manufacturers leave them out of all sorts of stuff. The only things I have found with dates for 2021 have been French-made corned beef from Prince's. The only items with 2022 dates have been wild salmon from John West.

Extra Virgin olive oil is still £2.19 in Lidl. MySupermarket shows it as being 8% below its average price. Sainsbury's is 5% below its average price. Tesco has Napolina extra virgin olive oil on offer at 22% below average price. In fact there are numerous offers on extra virgin olive oil in all the supermarkets at present. If your organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil was £2.50 last time you bought it and has now gone up in price, then it was probably an offer which has now ended.

There are several offers on tinned tomatoes as well. And where they are not on offer MySupermarket mostly shows the price as being the same as average. In fact that website will flag up straightaway if any of the supermarkets are profiteering

And there really is no need to look for food with a useby of 2020 or beyond. It might be chaotic for a few weeks. Not months, certainly not years. The French will gloat at any difficulties we have to start with. Then their farmers will start to get very unhappy if they lose a market for their produce and it will get sorted. It will probably be presented as them saving us from the consequences of Brexit but hey

You are quite right. This is not the Blitz. We are not going to be cut off from supplies of food in Europe with the Germans stopping us getting onions from the Channel Islands

maryb wrote: »

Extra Virgin olive oil is still £2.19 in Lidl. MySupermarket shows it as being 8% below its average price. Sainsbury's is 5% below its average price. Tesco has Napolina extra virgin olive oil on offer at 22% below average price. In fact there are numerous offers on extra virgin olive oil in all the supermarkets at present. If your organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil was £2.50 last time you bought it and has now gone up in price, then it was probably an offer which has now ended.

There are several offers on tinned tomatoes as well. And where they are not on offer MySupermarket mostly shows the price as being the same as average. In fact that website will flag up straightaway if any of the supermarkets are profiteering

And there really is no need to look for food with a useby of 2020 or beyond. It might be chaotic for a few weeks. Not months, certainly not years. The French will gloat at any difficulties we have to start with. Then their farmers will start to get very unhappy if they lose a market for their produce and it will get sorted. It will probably be presented as them saving us from the consequences of Brexit but hey

You are quite right. This is not the Blitz. We are not going to be cut off from supplies of food in Europe with the Germans stopping us getting onions from the Channel Islands

Hi

Makes total sense to me ... what people need to realise is that as one trading door closes another opens, giving those already using the current doors plenty of reasons to ensure that they're left considerably more than 'ajar'!

Okay, so the UK imports a considerable amount of our foodstuff, however by no means do all of those imports come from the EU & there are always alternative sources for goods that currently do .. in the majority of cases the removal of EU levels of import duties would result in food prices falling much closer to global averages ...

Despite the application of EU import duties, produce from alternative sources like (say) Morocco have been competitive with EU supply for years. We often buy oranges, clementines, tangerines, lemons, tomatoes etc which are marked up as produce of Morocco ... same for 'out of season' new potatoes being from Egypt & Morocco well before our Jersey Royals first hit the shelves (normally at some time in April?) ...

There will undoubtedly be initial logistical issues which could effect the supply of EU goods & opportunities for retailers to temporarily raise prices on some EU sourced perishable food if they believe that they can 'get away with it', but it's time that everyone understands that leaving the EU only really affects the logistics of foodstuff sourced from within the EU and that all of the talk of customs issues at Dover resulting in 'lorry parks & queues covering the whole of Kent' really only applies to a port that doesn't even rank within the top 10 UK agricultural produce & foodstuff ports ... to me this single fact suggests that potential issues at Dover in particular (due to Roll-On/Roll-Off reliance) suits the narrative of those still actively looking to reverse the outcome of the referendum ... we really do need to take a couple of deep breaths, apply a little logic (/common-sense) and see the scale of the issue for what it is ... problematic, but relatively minor :- despite what many are continually telling us!

HTH
Z