Lambs to the slaughter: a thread.
About a third of Scottish lamb goes for export, and 98% of that is to the European Union. French chefs highly value uplands-grazed lamb. There's a metaphor somewhere in there for the Brexit talks.
Via @BBCDouglasF
About a third of Scottish lamb goes for export, and 98% of that is to the European Union. French chefs highly value uplands-grazed lamb. There's a metaphor somewhere in there for the Brexit talks.
Via @BBCDouglasF
But for sheep farmers, this isn't metaphor. This is their future. The average tariff on sheep meat is 48%. It is not a flat rate: instead, there's a fee per kilo and a percentage of the value.
And the more it is butchered and processed, the higher the tariff on entering the European Union. One minister suggested sheep farmers could shift to beef, to replace Ireland's sales of beef into the UK. (He didn't offer suggestions on what Ireland's beef farmers should do.)
Beef will also face very high tariffs, as the UK intends to continue keeping out cheap imports, and if it has to set a high tariff to keep out beef from the US, Brazil or Argentina, the WTO rules dictate that it has to set the same tariff for Ireland and the rest of the EU.
Farming experts also point out that shifting from sheep to beef is a lengthy process of buying and rearing stock, and some land simply isn't suitable for it.
In summary: the practicalities of Brexit with a deal are much more onerous than at present. But the costs of Brexit without a deal are much higher still, and in agricultural goods, they will simply kill off large export markets. The stakes for steaks could hardly be higher.
Source: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla….
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