Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2021 11:39:50 GMT
Well yes, pretty stupid to leave an excellent arrangement with the closest neighbours then wasn't it?
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Feb 1, 2021 11:46:13 GMT
Are you missing the point on purpose, Norm? We have — well, had — short, efficient, frictionless supply chains for the things we can’t produce ourselves. (Not just a matter of quantity; we will still want lemons in our G&T.) So where’s the sense in making those as frictionless as a hedgehog on a bed of nails, then claiming that the solution is to buy food from the opposite side of the world?
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Post by bromptonaut on Feb 1, 2021 11:47:27 GMT
I hope you are right Al. But I don’t think the UK has the capacity to feed its 60m+ population without importing food from elsewhere. Are there even that many dairy herds left in the country? Didn’t France largely take over? Milk at the supermarket is invariably branded as British or in the relevant places West Country, Welsh or Scottish. Though I think the cheesemakers may need to import. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 1, 2021 11:50:29 GMT
Blessed are the cheesemakers.
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Avant
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Post by Avant on Feb 1, 2021 23:33:39 GMT
"Are there even that many dairy herds left in the country?" (previous page)
Fewer and fewer. The farmer in our village has recently sold most of his cows; keeping some back for beef. Even before the lockdowns, he was losing money on all milk produced. It's always difficult to make profits when bulk buyers dictate the terms.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2021 9:09:15 GMT
Great shame, isn't it. My Mum's place in Wales is a former dairy farm, her current habitation is the converted milking barn. The previous owner had sold off various parcels of land when he retired, which rendered the whole too small to be used for a profitable dairy farm ever again. The grass there is absolutley lush beyond all belief, so thick and rich and verdant. The next door farm is still of a large enough size, but it's been a long time since I saw any cows there, and the children of the old boy who owns it aren't interested in farming. I expect it will be sold for development in due course.
Oh well, dixi will be filling planes with milk and cheeses from New Zealand pastures soon enough.
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Avant
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Post by Avant on Feb 2, 2021 12:48:30 GMT
Dixi will probably have something useful to tell us about how farmers manage to prosper in NZ - assuming that they do.
Nowhere is perfect of course, but NZ seems to get a lot of things right, not least a strong government and effective border controls. Of course it helps having just 5 million people in a country fairly similar in geographical area to the UK (67m).
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Feb 2, 2021 13:40:21 GMT
The Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean mean that NZ farmers have the local market for perishables to themselves. It would be interesting to know what basics like milk and cheese sell for in SaiNZburys (sorry) without the competitive pressures farmers and retailers here have to work with.
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Post by dixinormus on Feb 2, 2021 21:40:10 GMT
Milk, cheese, etc are expensive in NZ! We pay the global price - ie the same price that the products fetch on the export market. 8 quid for a kilo of cheddar anyone?! 😬
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Feb 3, 2021 0:42:20 GMT
Tesco's own brand mature cheddar is £2 per 400g when I just checked. So £5/kg. But that's Tesco own branded and just mature. Go branded and say Cathedral City mature and it's £7.28 per kilo. Davidstow in Tesco is more than £10/kg. Not priced up Cornish Crunch or anything like that.
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Post by dixinormus on Feb 3, 2021 4:10:12 GMT
It’s claimed that NZ can feed around 30 million people, so there’s plenty of stuff to export. Intensive farming has started to create issues, however and the country’s clean and green image has been a little under threat.
Dairy farmers have increased the size of their herds, which in turn increases the effluent they produce per square km. You don’t want too much of that stuff infiltrating your lakes and rivers. And then to compound matters in some regions farms have borrowed huge sums to put in irrigation systems which in turn permit grazing in drier regions. But also mess up the water table further 😟.
NZ used to have something like 60 million sheep, but this number has halved over the past 10/20 years because beef and dairy is more “profitable” (if you ignore the farm loans, debts and overdrafts)...
TLDR: (hu)mankind has almost stuffed things up down here too...
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Aug 4, 2021 14:32:05 GMT
Oh, how we laughed...
MiL has sent a small package, international postage paid, customs declaration, some small bits 'n bobs for the little 'uns, value GBP20.00
Got handed a tried to deliver note from the postie/courier today. I explained I was in, I could take it off him, he said no, need to go to collection point and pay customs duty/tax. 68,80€. I didn't realise Germany had become part of Denmark !
Me thinks there be some exploitation and profiteering going on here.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2021 14:35:48 GMT
[idiot] A small price to pay for our freedom, I think you'll find. [/idiot]
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Aug 4, 2021 16:37:42 GMT
Some families either side of the water are going to get a shock at Christmas for relatively low value items.
Shipping low cost goods between UK & EU looks like a limited life business model.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2021 8:02:05 GMT
I worked in the export sales department of a UK electronics manufacturer at the time the single market kicked in. I remember the previous situation, to which we are returning, all too well. After single market started, our exports took off nicely. I am convinced that it was so long ago, and so few people actually experienced the difference the single market made to day to day business, that there was very little comprehension around in the electorate and in politics of what leaving the single market would mean in reality.
Well, now everyone should know. Learning the hard way. It's going to take a decade from the vote at least to even begin to fix this horrendous mistake. It is utterly imperative that the Tories are removed from power at the next election. It is everyone's duty to this country to vote for the candiadte in their seat most likely to defeat the Tory candidate. Whatever the party. The next government MUST seek a solution, and we must re-enter the single market and customs union as soon as possible. We must strive for the "Norway" outcome of Brexit, yes that means we would become a "rule taker" in trade terms, well fine. We can't go on how we are. After that, maybe we can re-join properly and eventually correct this blantant and self-evident mistake and retake our position as a leading nation in one of the world's most crucial alliances. But to do so we must remove the Tories. Any vote for them at the next election is incomprehensible. As it was at the last one, frankly. But here we are.
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