Scottish Salmon Producers Association join leading bodies representing Scotland’s £14 billion farming, food and drink industry in rejecting “potentially catastrophic impact of not reaching any deal”.
The SSPO has joined representative bodies in co-signing a letter that included Scottish Bakers, NFU Scotland, Scotland Food and Drink, Food and Drink Federation Scotland and Quality Meat Scotland among others to call upon authorities to reject a “No Deal” Brexit.
The groups are concerned that as the EU accounts for 70% of Scottish food exports – goods and services will be affected. But as Parliament battle it out ahead of the official leave date on the 29th of March, the impact of not just leaving but rather crashing out of the EU will hurt even more, they said. If a formal withdrawal treaty has not been signed by this point, all EU rules and regulations will instantly cease to apply to the UK.
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“We are collectively hugely ambitious for the growth of our industry. However, even using the UK Government’s own projections, we estimate the cost of No Deal to our industry would be at least £2 billion in lost sales annually. That is on top of the short-term chaos resulting from transport delays and labour shortages,” the letter said.
The bodies also highlighted the cost of uncertainty on business: “Indeed, our businesses are already bearing the cost of “No Deal”, having to spend millions of pounds in time and investment to mitigate the potential disruption that will stem from the UK crashing out of the EU.”
“By Parliament rejecting a “No Deal” scenario, our industry effort can focus on shaping a future relationship with the EU that we can work with, not preparing for the fallout we can’t. There is no tolerance for “No Deal” as an option. It must be rejected,” the letter added.
