An article in Demos Ciclitira’s online blog, Demos, points out that the constant uncertainty about what kind of Brexit deal the UK is going to make – or not make – has Britain’s dried fruit buyers very worried. As with most manufacturers who need to order raw material in advance of production, they are faced with guesstimating what quantities of material they will need after Brexit. Not an ideal situation, as you can imagine.
Nor is it ideal for buyers of dried fruit (and nuts) that the value of sterling fluctuates against the euro and the dollar with every swing of the political pendulum – so far, sterling has managed to more or less maintain a fairly constant position but a hard Brexit may well change all that very quickly.
In fact, TradeScope has noted that the dried fruit and nut market in the UK has gone very quiet since the beginning of 2019 – surely no coincidence with the elephant in the room that's lurking at the end of March. Read the full Demos article here.