“You can’t get a white Anglo Saxon protestant to pick a strawberry.” The food industry crisis brought by Brexit

Posted bygustafkilanderPosted inUncategorized

BreXrated, March 2017

Britain will not be able to produce all the food it needs without the European Union. During the 2016 Wimbledon tennis tournament, 139,435 portions of strawberries were served. But Professor David Hughes, an international speaker on global food and drink industry issues, said almost the entire harvest workforce in the British fresh berry industry is non-UK. He said: “It’s largely eastern or central European. If that isn’t allowed, that industry would collapse. You can’t get a white Anglo Saxon protestant to pick a strawberry.”

The International Food and Drink Event will be held in London between 19 and 22 March. 29,000 people from 108 countries are expected to attend. But is London going to be an international food hub after Britain leaves the EU? Ruth Mason, chief food chain adviser at the National Farmers’ Union said: “We are operating in a very uncertain market, it’s very unclear as to what the future holds. We are seeing prices of homegrown commodities inflate because of a weak pound.”

Professor Hughes said a lot of “claptrap” has been said about what will happen to the UK food industry after Brexit. He said: “UK consumers, we love Italian food, we’re not about to say ‘well bugger that!’”

According to Professor Hughes, the EU is vital for the UK food trade. He said: “70 percent of European food exports go to the UK, 70 percent of our exports go to the EU, and that trend has been increasing over the last 15 to 20 years. We are intrinsically linked in trade.”

Published by gustafkilander

I’m a Swedish journalist with international experience, having worked in the UK and Sweden, and having studied in the US, Britain and Sweden. Most recently, I was tasked with explaining American politics and the Democratic primaries for the online news department of the Swedish public TV broadcaster, SVT, where I made videos from scratch. This required a variety of skills like researching, scripting, presenting, filming, lighting, editing, and writing. Before that, I worked for Swedish public radio, where I edited videos and images for the social media feeds of the news department. I also live-tweeted important radio events and was in charge of writing the first words published by Swedish public radio on numerous stories. While I was studying in London, I was a video producer for The Sun, one of the biggest British newspapers. I quickly took on a lot of responsibilities in a fast-paced news environment.