Food shortages being kept quiet?

[le bon paysan]

Breaking news on France24 .
From 02 November France are to impose border checks on goods from Britain and prevent British fishing boats from accessing French ports, if the situation regarding the fishing licences does. not improve, the Maritime and European Affairs Ministries said in a joint statement. So you'll have plenty of fish to eat.

 

[bobk]

Breaking news on France24 .
From 02 November France are to impose border checks on goods from Britain and prevent British fishing boats from accessing French ports, if the situation regarding the fishing licences does. not improve, the Maritime and European Affairs Ministries said in a joint statement.

They are already doing that , have been since Oct 1 .

 

[le bon paysan]

They are already doing that , have been since Oct 1 .

No.
At the moment UK boats are landing in Normandie.

 

[bobk]

No.
At the moment UK boats are landing in Normandie.

You said goods not boats

 

[le bon paysan]

You said goods not boats

Breaking news on France24 .
From 02 November France are to impose border checks on goods from Britain and prevent British fishing boats from accessing French ports, if the situation regarding the fishing licences does. not improve, the Maritime and European Affairs Ministries said in a joint statement. So you'll have plenty of fish to eat.

Quite clear.
Perhaps you should correct F24 as they seem to think you ain't seen nothing yet.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

'Skimmed long life milk' come on now, nobody drinks that stuff.

We do and it was absent from Lidl for a month or more. Luckily Aldi which is just next door has been able to maintain supply. Mrs Y believes in maintaining stocks so we normally have at least 15 to 20 litres in stock.

 

[bobk]

Quite clear.
Perhaps you should correct F24 as they seem to think you ain't seen nothing yet.

It'll hurt france more than us , just Macron waving his thing

 

[dowcow]

Had a local co-op shop on the phone last week needing milk. Had no milk delivered from the co-op depot for 5 days. they had not had a sensible explaination why

They sold their old and un-competitive dairies to Dairy Farmers of Britain and regarded supply chain security as less important than screwing the price of milk down. Stuff em and all the others of that ilk! Or at least charge them the same as the doorstep delivery customers would pay

 

[Bongodog]

Walkers have stopped production on 200 lines , pretty similar throughout the industry

Really ? what reason would they have, they only require potatoes, cooking oil and some dodgy flavourings not aware any are in short supply. As to stopping production on 200 lines, their website shows only about 40 in total.

Son was staying in one of the big chain hotels last week in Portsmouth. No hot food available as they had a shortage of chefs, who mostly came from the EU.

Had this experience recently with a Premier Inn, no evening meal service due to no chef. Firstly I like my food too much to eat at a Premier Inn for dinner anyway, secondly I had to try very hard to resist saying that they never did employ a chef, what they actually had was a food warmer.

 

[Al R]

Been shortages with our deliveries for months, Up to 50% not delivered mid summer but that was mainly due to 60 million people embarking on the area, phones went down for 8 weeks, shops empty and pubs closing multiple times a week to give staff a break.
What really doesn’t help is holidayers not changing their Tesco delivery address and the delivery men turning up to the holiday cottage they were in a few weeks ago yet the “buyer” is in London somewhere At one point the drivers were saying they were having this happen multiple times a day.

 

[dowcow]

I'd rather starve to death than have to consume UHT milk ever again in my life.

Well that's the thing. If there's a rough winter, maybe another storm Desmond situation, or all the power goes out because the country ran out of gas, a bottle of UHT in the cupboard means your cup of tea or coffee is only a little iffy, rather than downright miserable if you are someone who always has it white. A lot of low-end food service relies on UHT for the beverages. I imagine it is a lot more popular in the really remote regions of the world than in the UK where its rarely more than 5 or 10 minutes to the Co-Op which *always* has milk....

No matter how bad the UHT is.... it still has to win out over whatever muck the vegans are calling milk these days.

 

[Al R]

Well that's the thing. If there's a rough winter, maybe another storm Desmond situation, or all the power goes out because the country ran out of gas, a bottle of UHT in the cupboard means your cup of tea or coffee is only a little iffy, rather than downright miserable if you are someone who always has it white. A lot of low-end food service relies on UHT for the beverages. I imagine it is a lot more popular in the really remote regions of the world than in the UK where its rarely more than 5 or 10 minutes to the Co-Op which *always* has milk....

No matter how bad the UHT is.... it still has to win out over whatever muck the vegans are calling milk these days.

I’ve got 80 litres of cows colostrum in a freezer if sh!t really hits the fan

 

[dowcow]

I’ve got 80 litres of cows colostrum in a freezer if sh!t really hits the fan

How long would that last if the power goes out for a few days though? I should think most farms would have a generator anyway, so it isn't really an issue for us. Do the local shops and supermarkets have backup generators too?

 

[Highashgrange]

Has the media been told to stop reporting food shortages?

Has anyone else noticed a shortage of food items in restaurants and shops recently? Maybe its just me being stupid.

Not essential by any means! But shortages I have noticed and on my mind are walkers ready salted crisps and diet coke.

Anyone else noticed anything?

Shortages in crap like soft drinks, confectionary, crisps, processed foods is good news. People need to get back to cooking meat and two veg every night.

 

[Al R]

How long would that last if the power goes out for a few days though? I should think most farms would have a generator anyway, so it isn't really an issue for us. Do the local shops and supermarkets have backup generators too?

A long time as I’d rather use lamlac or calf milk replacer than cows colostrum
Still on coal Aga so heating and cooking wouldn’t be compromised here but 95% of homes would struggle with no Popty Pings

 

[dowcow]

It's not just a UK problem this food supply issue. It's a worldwide screw-up when fish get sent from the USA to Vietnam/Thailand for processing, to then get shipped back where they came from for sale. It's happening here with the supermarket supply chains too, relying on a conveyor belt of lorries back and forth across Europe taking things like meat one way and meat pies on the way back because it works out 0.5 pence per pie cheaper than processing it in the country of origin. It's all great until a ship gets stuck in the Suez, or Covid happens, or someone closes a border for whatever reason, or protestors blockade something, or a flood occurs. I imagine the food supply chain to be like a big Jenga tower, with the supermarkets pulling pieces out and re stacking them over the last 30 years, and now it's looking fairly bloody wobbly indeed. In fact it might already be in a heap after the last couple of years, and we are seeing that now with all the empty shelves.

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

Quite clear.
Perhaps you should correct F24 as they seem to think you ain't seen nothing yet.

You could tell them that we have a plan to send our goods over in small rubber boats

 

[Al R]

It's not just a UK problem this food supply issue. It's a worldwide screw-up when fish get sent from the USA to Vietnam/Thailand for processing, to then get shipped back where they came from for sale. It's happening here with the supermarket supply chains too, relying on a conveyor belt of lorries back and forth across Europe taking things like meat one way and meat pies on the way back because it works out 0.5 pence per pie cheaper than processing it in the country of origin. It's all great until a ship gets stuck in the Suez, or Covid happens, or someone closes a border for whatever reason, or protestors blockade something, or a flood occurs. I imagine the food supply chain to be like a big Jenga tower, with the supermarkets pulling pieces out and re stacking them over the last 30 years, and now its looking fairly bloody wobbly indeed. In fact it might already be in a heap after the last couple of years, and we are seeing that now with all the empty shelves.

Things started getting short when the Chinese had African swine flu and buried millions of pigs alive, therefore needing all Southern Hemisphere meat to fill the void, Covid happens not long after, new Uruguayan prime minister said they want no meat to leave the country until people in Uruguay stop starving. Fires, floods and droughts on multiple continents too.
Multiply this across a few countries and hundreds of million of people if not billions effected and shortages will appear quickly.

 

[Bongodog]

The issue of supply times from the far east has resulted in some people asking why we headed down that route to start with. Recently I've heard of people switching to UK manufacturing because either the UK is actually cheaper due to shipping cost increases, or the difference is so little that its better to pay the extra than wait 5 months.

 

[som farmer]

Quite clear.
Perhaps you should correct F24 as they seem to think you ain't seen nothing yet.

as said from this side, the boats refused licenses cannot 'prove' they had traditionally fished in those waters, as they all should have trackers, it begs the question, were they illegally fishing there. Also, as the rest of eu don't seem interested, is this a case of macron trying to get more, than his share, of the EU quota, split between all members.
But politicians being politicians, there are always ulterior motives, they all like the sound of their own voices, often spouting hot air, macron has an election next year, and is perhaps worried about his position.
However, whatever the rights and wrongs of the matter, something we will never be quite sure about, threatening to cut power supplies, to a neighbouring nation, because he can't get his own way, is utterly, and completely wrong, threatening to break off military defence agreements/treaties, is so stupid, and dangerous to peace, it's childlike. What is his next move, if he doesn't get what he wants ? Gunboats ? Because if he doesn't get his way, he will look very very stupid, and that, for any politician is very bad publicity, and something that no politician would ever like to look, and if a tit for tat, ensues .........
As for empty shelves, that has nothing to do with brexit, and you will certainly end up short of goods, it has everything to do with the complex global delivery, just in time, policy, and covid has really fudged that, just as shipping containers ended up, not being where they were needed etc, and l think the days of being able to pick any food you want, off the shelf, are over, staple foods, no problem.
But as with all politics, there is so much hot air, and shuffling round, you never know the real 'truth', sometimes l wonder if even the politicians do.