Responding to FPJ’s recent publication “Open For Business – Making the Most of Brexit” and the editorial that concludes “Brexit isn’t all bad news”, I’d like to offer a different view.
I, like many others I have spoken to in the industry, think it’s very bad news indeed. Additionally, we are already “open for business” and always have been.
As the government’s own studies are leaked and released, it’s becoming apparent that “making the most of Brexit” will be very hard for most of us. Even by their own estimates, the adverse economic effect of the differing outcomes of negotiations will be severe.
Ask me what Brexit will offer my company and I reply that it offers nothing positive at all. In summary, Brexit only removes existing opportunities, and creates unwelcome challenges.
The examples of exchange rates, staffing issues, import controls and a lack of proper replacement trade agreements are just a few of those challenges. I refuse to see ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’.
The list of “opportunities” is more like a string of soundbites from a Brexit Political Broadcast – the clarion call to boost domestic production might rouse spirits but this all ignores reality.
The assertion that the UK will need to produce more of our own food doesn’t take into account the reality of the situation, that with the falling pound and uncertainty over their status, the people that we need to pick it and pack it are already staying away.
Of course we would like to increase domestic production, but we need the resources to do that. NFU data shows that 4,300 vacancies went unfilled this past season, a figure representing around half the horticultural seasonal workforce.
According to the NFU, unpicked product was left to rot in the orchards and in the fields. Many leading UK farmers have also been quoted in the national press highlighting this single issue in recent times.
Reports that UK farmers are already investing in land in China, eastern Europe and even the southern hemisphere to avoid the problems they are facing in the UK speaks volumes. On the other hand though, it also demonstrates that we are already “open for business” under our current EU agreements!
Other contributors to the supplement are claiming a ‘Brexit dividend’ in exports. I wonder what they think is preventing them from exporting now, with the myriad of EU trade agreements we have with 168 countries, and how they think it will be different after we leave the EU?
Instead of pretending everything in the garden is rosy, I call on colleagues in the trade to do as we have: meet your local MPs, write to leading government officials, and raise your points of concern.
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