UK exports continue to struggle in the wake of Brexit, including confectionery
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The latest Food and Drink Federation (FDF) trade snapshot in the UK has made for sobering reading, revealing that export trade with our nearest neighbours across market segments was down by 13.1% against figures from three years ago, at £20.2 billion.
This included losses within the confectionery sector – which were down by a less alarming figure (- 1.6% for chocolate sales against 2019 figures (at £755 million), which still gave notable cause for concern, given that the segment had been traditionally the second largest export item from the UK, which had previously been a ‘banker’ for overseas sales.
So where have the problems been? Well, clearly, the pandemic of the past two years has not helped matters at all in terms of logistics issues and staffing problems, with workforces affected by Covid-19’s onslaught, which has posed universal problems across business sectors.
While this has undoubtedly played its part, the drop in our exports has, whether the government chooses to acknowledge this or not, been largely down to our own self-inflicted harm arising from the fallout of Brexit. Even by recent estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the impact from that fateful decision of 2016 is set to leave us 4% worse off in GDP terms, which is a worry for many industries.
Though the UK’s confectionery market has typically been pretty plucky in terms of its resilience to wider market conditions, this is one hurdle that’s just not going to be overcome without major assistance driven through government policy.
Whether this actually transpires or not is hard to predict given that there seemingly appears some distance between Britain and the EU regarding over their future relationship, which remains delicately balanced amid present global events.
As the FDF reportedly noted in its annual event this week, the other main unfolding crisis in terms of global markets is clearly that of the Ukrainian conflict, with Russia’s invasion of its neighbour posing considerable economic challenges as well as the humanitarian crisis. Among its hardest hitting impacts is the fact that around a quarter of the world’s grain and wheat supplies stem from the region, which is now highly unstable, with no clear end in sight.
Then there’s the major impact on manufacturing operations within both Ukraine and Russia, where many major corporations including Mars, Mondelez and Nestle have confirmed they are scaling back their activities in response to the situation.
There are clearly a great many issues to resolve across the sector, from logistics and export tests, the ongoing effects of the pandemic, through to ensuring supply chains in an uncertain world that are keeping us all very much on our toes.
Neill Barston, editor, Confectionery Production
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