Hard cheese
Cheesemaker Simon Spurrell reports losing a fifth of his orders overnight when Britain left the single market on 1st January. His Cheshire Cheese Company had a successful line in selling packs of wax-wrapped cheese, worth £25-£30, direct to European customers, but it has turned out that every order requires a £180 health certificate, rendering the trade unviable. He will now divert a planned £1m investment in a distribution centre from Macclesfield to France, moving 20 jobs. Spurrell had spoken to Defra in advance, and was ready for changes in wholesale, but had had no warnings on the retail side. And he now also faces issues in wholesale, after his main distributor has said it’s no longer worth the paperwork to ship consignments into Northern Ireland. He markets to North America and Norway outside the EU without difficulty, suggesting the problem could be resolved-but only if the politics is conducive.