Brexit pressures are largely to blame for the soaring price of chicken, the British Poultry Council (BPC) has said, rejecting Boris Johnson’s claim it is down to global energy prices.
The prime minister said soaring supermarket prices were mainly due to international fuel supply problems on Tuesday, adding: “The cost of chickens is crazy.”
But the BPC fired back at Mr. Johnson on Wednesday by blaming post-Brexit trade barriers and skill shortages for the spike in production costs.
“It is not ‘mainly fuel’ that’s the problem, PM said in his Good Morning Britain interview. It is everything. Input costs like water, labor, energy, and feed are all up,” said a BPC spokesperson on Twitter.
Citing “ongoing Brexit pressures,” the industry body added:
“Combined with trade barriers, shipping delays for machinery, and a skills shortage (vets and lorry drivers), this adds a cost that must be recovered through the marketplace.”
Britain’s largest chicken supplier, 2 Sisters, has predicted that food price rises of 15 percent will be needed to “even begin to cover the increasing cost of production.”
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Environment secretary George Eustice acknowledged the price of chicken and other fresh produce would continue to rise but suggested hard-pressed families turn to “value brands.”
The BPC said the government had “repeatedly failed to acknowledge” the need for a “fair” system to help UK producers since the Brexit withdrawal deal kicked in last January.
It said members had lost £85m in chicken exports to the EU last year because of unreciprocated controls.
Poultry chiefs called on the government to strike a veterinary agreement on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules with Brussels to allow for a reciprocal removal of checks on products entering the EU from the UK.The poultry council is
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