Cereal farmers have told Sky News leaving the EU without a deal would be “catastrophic” and the continued uncertainty is having a huge cost to business.

Unlike some livestock farming, arable farmers have not been offered any protection against cheaper imports and also face the prospect of an increase in export tariffs.

Matthew Culley has grown malting barley for 25 years on his farms in the Bourne Valley near Andover, Hampshire.

For the first time, earlier this year he has had a contract cut in Europe and says it was because of the uncertainty surrounding export prices.

He said: “It’s a big concern. I have two stores with 240 tonnes of barley sitting in it that should have gone to Europe months ago. The barley was supposed to go to Carlsberg to make beer and instead it is sat here.

“It has cost us 25% of our market price since October. That is £15,000 that should be sitting in the bank.

“But the worry going forward is will we ever see these contacts again? We could be looking at export tariffs into Europe of anything up to £60 a tonne, possibly on barley.

“That’s not going to come from the buyer, unlikely to come from the merchant, so will all come from the grower. We can’t sustain those sorts of tariffs going forward.”

As a result, Mr Culley has already tried diversifying his spring crop and has had to push back his plans for harvest.

It is a similar situation further down the supply chain.

Flour mills up and down the country say they are struggling to plan ahead and are worried about the impact of prolonged uncertainty. Around 40% of flour is exported to Europe, much in the form of baked goods.

Director of the Flour Millers’ Association, Alex Waugh, said times are extremely challenging for business.

He said: “It’s really tough. You can make all the plans you want but when the deadline to implement keeps moving, you don’t know what to say to your customers.

“One of the challenges for us is exports. We’re expecting if there’s no deal, our exports will have big tariffs put on them, maybe 50%. So when a customer rings up and asks, ‘can you tell me what the price will be next week or next month?’, you say ‘yes, but it could be another 50% on top of that’.

“That uncertainty is killing for us, as suppliers, it’s killing for them, as customers as they don’t know how to manage that in their own marketplace.”

The National Farmers’ Union told Sky News there is huge fear among British farmers about what could happen and is calling on the government to act now and make a decision on a possible deal.

Vice president Stuart Roberts said: “We have no idea at the moment how we will avoid a disastrous no-deal with catastrophic consequences for farming.

“We are seeing contracts cancelled. I was talking to a grain merchant who has no export sales for malt and barley between now and June, a period when we would normally be exporting malt and barley and they have none.

“We are certainly starting to see that reflected in the price. The other issue is that we’re seeing an effect on confidence.

“We carry out an annual confidence survey, and our mid-term confidence among British farmers is at its lowest level since we started it in 2010.”

Source: Read Full Article